Thomas Edison (10 Days Series)

• An instinctive moment of bravery that launched a career
• A lucky break that freed him for a life of invention
• An incredible boast that he quickly proved true
• A flash of insight that lit the world
• And the creation of our favorite pastime, the movies.

These days and five others shook Edison's world - and yours.

You're about to be an eyewitness to the top ten days in Thomas Edison's life, including:

• An instinctive moment of bravery that launched a career
• A lucky break that freed him for a life of invention
• An incredible boast that he quickly proved true
• A flash of insight that lit the world
• And the creation of our favorite pastime, the movies.

These days and five others shook Edison's world - and yours.

Children's Literature

Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. Elementary and middle school students live in such an advanced world that many of them may not even be able to identify a picture of an electric light bulb, as familiar as that sight was to their parents and grandparents. When teaching students about Mr. Edison, more may be accomplished by focusing on his many communications inventions that have parallels to today's modern computers. Students who can send text messages before their eighth birthday will be able to understand the telegraph and the Morse Code sent over it, with a formula of dots and dashes that represented words and phrases. Readers who spend hours in front of their personal computers, calling up images and tunes they can then modify to create totally new images and tunes will understand Edison's tendency to ignore the work at hand in preference of tinkering and testing multiple possibilities. Edison was born in 1847, in a world where transportation typically occurred by horse or steamboat. He died in 1931, in an age when airplanes, telephones, motion pictures, and X-rays were common. This was an exciting time for an inventor to live, and Edison tried to make the most of all of his opportunities. Author Colbert has done a commendable job of writing a biography that will appeal to younger readers. Many students wait until they are assigned to write an eighth grade book report to discover the world of knowledge found in biographies. This particular text was somewhat stilted in its continual transition from present tense to past tense and back again. However, the inclusion of side bars and the appendix pages of websites, notes and a bibliography will make this a worthwhilepurchase. Part of the "10 Days" series. Reviewer: Joyce Rice

David Colbert's most recent book is the New York Times bestseller Michelle Obama: An American Story. In addition to the 10 Days series, he authored the acclaimed Eyewitness series of first-person history and the Magical Worlds series for children. More than two million copies of his books are in print in almost thirty languages.