Telephones, Televisions, and Toilets: How They Work and What Can Go Wrong

by Gilda Berger and Melvin A. Berger

Book Overview

This book explains how these basic household items work and how a child can help ensure that they keep working. Technical terms are explained in easy-to-understand words, using analogy and examples to teach and inform. Only the very basic, non-dangerous trouble-shooting methods are described for each household item, including the importance of parental supervision. Illustrated.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824986083
• ISBN13: 9780824986087
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: Ideals Publications
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.3" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Three Things That Start With "T".

This book gives an easy-to-understand explanation of how telephones, televisions, and toliets work. The book is written for children, but adults can benefit from reading this book as well (I often understand a subject better by reading a "children's" book on the subject). The book contains some cartoonish illustrations that make the explantions less dry and there are also several diagrams that make the technical knowledge much easier to understand. The three subjects in the book not only all start with the letter "t", but they also all function in a cyclical fashion. This is a great science book for young kids and is sure to spark some sort of interest into technology in a youngster's mind.

4 ½* A Fun Book About Electrical and Mechanical Phenomena

Someone calls this an "odd combination," why, what child isn't fascinated by toilets? The book offers excellent, non-technical explanations for kids with enough detail to keep things interesting. For example, the telephone section (15 pages) mentions sound waves, diaphragms, and radio waves; the television section concisely explains the mixing of color light waves, as well as the transmitter, the antenna, and cable TV, and the section on toilets not only contains a sly reference to Virginia Woolf's "Flush," but explains the basic mechanics of the handle, the float, the rubber stopper, the septic tank, and the plunger (when things get stuck). A nice combination of whimsy and fact, this is an excellent book for the young scientist and the merely curious. Adults may learn from it as well. With 47 pages, simple (but not "amateurish") illustrations, and a one-page index!