Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life
Nonfiction Series
For ages 8 to 12
Kids Can Press, 1999 ISBN: 978-1550744583
From a very early age Alexander Graham Bell was fascinated by sound, speech, and how the ear worked. Because his mother was hearing impaired, and because his father had invented a special kind of language for the deaf, Alexander naturally began to work with deaf teaching them how to read and how to communicate with the hearing world.
At the same time however Alexander never gave up his interest in sound and communication. He work on developing a new kind of telegraph system and this seemed to gravitate towards creating a machine which would make it possible for sound to be carried over wires from one place to another.
Though this book gives an gripping account of how Alexander developed his most invention, it also does a wonderful job at showing the reader that he was also a loving husband and father, a man dedicated to helping the deaf, and a man who was interested in all kinds of ideas, gadgets, gizmos. He was a man who wanted to help others, and one who got a great deal out of life as well.
Full of annotated photos, illustrations, and pictures of memorabilia, as well as interesting anecdotes and quotes, this is a wonderful book which brings Alexander Graham Bell and his world to life. The scrapbook type format makes the book easy to read, to dip into, and it makes the biography accessible and visually interesting.
