jB

48 pages
4-6th grade
Survey Book

This Edison biography came from a series of books for children called DK Readers. This series features five levels of books from Level 1: Learning to Read to Level 4: Proficient Readers (The Jenner biography is Level 4). I was impressed with the amount of factual information crammed into this short book. It chronologically covers Edison’s entire life, focusing mainly on his contributions to society through invention. The text summarizes his most noteworthy inventions, occasionally providing interesting anecdotes depicting his zeal for his life and career. The margins of every page are filled with notes and thumbnails describing Edison, his work, colleagues, and inventions. It is impressive how much information Jenner crams into one little book. The book also contains a table of contents, glossary and index.
I recommend my students using this book as a reference for a report on Edison. It is too dry for reading to the class out loud. I fear it would not keep an entire class’ attention for more than five minutes. However, I would recommend it as free reading for a child who loves science. ( )