Editorial Review

Each title opens with a spread that introduces the topic via a child’s or children’s involvement with it and then offers an overview of it. In Calendar, Chen Qi says that he was born in the year of the boar, 4693, while Rachel was born in 5755. The teacher then explains the Chinese and Jewish calendars. The following pages answer many questions about different means of keeping track of time throughout history and the development of the calendar created by Pope Gregory. Computer takes readers from a contemporary computer lab back to the early Chinese abacus, and forward to slide rules for calculations of difficult mathematical equations, to Pascal’s mechanical computers we use today. In Motion Picture, Katya creates a very special birthday gift for Nana by using her computer, digital photos, the Internet, and a movie-making program. From this introduction, the book takes readers back through an informative and captivating overview of the development of moving pictures, beginning with shadows and puppets centuries ago. In Library readers journey from 3000 B.C. with papyrus, to Greek libraries, to paper making, Gutenburg, Braille, and the Library of Congress. All four books have full-color photos and fact boxes with additional information attractively laid out on the page. The open format and ample white space enhance the appealing texts.