Techno Lab How Science Is Changing Entertainment

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-This survey of technological changes in the world of entertainment is divided into five chapters: motion pictures, sound recordings, television, video games, and virtual reality. Each begins and ends with a fictionalized scenario: Steven Spielberg plans special effects for Jurassic Park; the cast of ``Roseanne'' tapes an episode; Janet Jackson records a new CD; Super Mario battles Bowzer the dragon; and two friends try a virtual-reality game for the first time. These scenes come off as a bit artificial, but the examples will be familiar to most kids. Each chapter offers a brief history of the entertainment format, followed by a discussion of the new products made possible by modern technology. The writing is fairly clear and lively. The sometimes overly enthusiastic tone is balanced by solid, if limited, technical explanations of how things actually work. As the subtitle suggests, the benefits of these scientific developments are only discussed in terms of fun and entertainment, with no mention of their potential use in education, training, or research. More thorough coverage of specific topics is offered in Gloria Skurzynski's Know the Score (1994) and Almost the Real Thing (1991, both Bradbury), or Scott's Movie Magic (Morrow, 1995), but Techno Lab offers a decent, up-to-date overview of rapidly changing technology.-Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR

From The Critics

In this fascinating look at the influence of science and technology on entertainment, five entertainment technologies are featured: movies, recorded music, television, video games, and virtual reality. Each chapter describes the history and development of a technology and then takes a close-up look at how it actually functions. The chapter on movies explores how special effects are created and explains the difference between optical and mechanical effects. The video games chapter includes the history of the "Mario Brothers" game and basic information on computer memory, CPUS, and CD-ROMS. The section on virtual reality explains each piece of equipment involved and describes the experience of playing two different games. The text is informative and easy to understand. Illustrations, however, are minimal. A brief activities section includes directions for making a flip-book and a tin-can sound-wave transmitter. The endpapers present a time line of events in the technological history of entertainment from 1832 to the 1990s. Glossary, biliography, but no index.