Forensic Science

Grade 4–7—Fridell delivers a compelling history of forensic science, from its beginnings in 1910 through the present. Examples of investigations abound and are brought to life by photos. Most riveting are the descriptions of professionals involved in a murder case, including a medical examiner who dissects corpses and a forensic entomologist who examines dead flesh. Details from these chapters in particular will make effective booktalks, and the catalog and photo of a CSI crime kit will have children assembling their own from household items. This title has more visual appeal and is for a slightly younger audience than Charlotte Foltz Jones's Fingerprints and Talking Bones (Delacorte, 1997). Give David Owen's Police Lab (Firefly, 2002) to those who ask for more. Readers of Technology will be delighted to learn that such ingenious gadgets as pistols in lipstick cases are not just the stuff of James Bond, but have been used by organizations like the CIA and the KGB. (Differences between these and other intelligence agencies are outlined.) This attractive book is an excellent introduction to the motivations of governments to look into the military and political secrets of enemy groups, as well as those within their own countries. Fridell spends a lot of time on the Cold War, "the golden age of spying," but also discusses today's spy satellites that pick up billions of telephone calls and e-mail messages each day for analysis by the NSA, and the Patriot Act. The concentration on tools sets the book apart from Philip Abraham's The CIA (Children's Press, 2003) or Claudia B. Manley's Secret Agents (Rosen Central, 2001).—Denise Ryan, Middlesex Middle School, Darien, CT
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