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The Industrial Revolution    by Carla Mooney Amazon.com order for
Industrial Revolution
by Carla Mooney
Order:  USA  Can
Nomad, 2011 (2011)
Hardcover, Softcover, e-Book

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* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

Youngsters nine years of age and older can investigate how science and technology changed the world as they read this book and try the 25 projects provided by the author.

Opening with a timeline that covers the period from 1712 to 1913, the reader finds a sampling of the events, people and inventions that made the Industrial Revolution a reality. After a brief introduction that discusses ideas, inventions and innovations, the first chapter delves into the textile industry. Chapter Two then looks at the Industrial Revolution in America and the following chapters focus on transportation, communications, electricity and the captains of industry.

In each section you'll find boxed Words to Know. This offers the key words and definitions for understanding the text. There are also Did You Know? sidebars that offer special facts. For example, 'By 1868, the Erie Canal was carrying 3 million tons of freight a year (2.7 million metric tons).'

The hands-on element of the book includes constructing your own paddlewheel steamship, creating a tin can telephone, and fashioning a pinhole camera out of a cardboard canister and wax paper.

Teachers who wish to supplement their history curriculum and parents home schooling their children will find this a very useful book. Well illustrated with drawings and maps plus simple, understandable instructions for each of the projects, this is a resource book that will pay double dividends down the road. Any way you can engage a child in the study of history and make the subject come alive has to be a major plus. This book shows some of the ways this can be done.

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