INVENTIONS

A slim, colorful overview of inventions in communications, photography, music and transportation, with an even briefer look at future technologies in medicine, genetic engineering, robotics and nanotechnology. As with other titles in the Kingfisher Young Knowledge series, topics are treated in three to four paragraphs with four or more full-color photos or drawings. Each chapter provides an even briefer summary, suggested websites and a few print sources for more information, as well as a list of related careers. The typical two-page summary on computers introduces the first computer invented by English math genius Charles Babbage (1792–1871), jumps to the electronic digital computer developed in Britain in 1943, then the integrated circuit of the 1960s, and concludes with quantum computers, which would be “faster and more powerful than any machine that we use today.” Treatments are too brief to explain how stuff works, and there is no clear timeline, but the appealing graphics and the inclusion of iPods, computer games and other high-tech gadgets will attract young browsers. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 7-12)