Phones Keep Us Connected

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Kasia Nowowiejska (Illustrator)

Overview

Read and find out about the science, technology, and history of how phones work in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book.

"A well-explained, informative presentation on the telephone’s historical development as well as how cell phones work. Featuring a diverse crew of characters, the upbeat digital illustrations are attractive and, equally important, very helpful in showing hard-to-visualize concepts." (Booklist starred review)

Phones Keep Us Connected includes a glossary, a find out more section with an activity about building a string telephone, and an infographic about the history of the phone.

Questions addressed in this book include:

• How was the phone invented?
• How has it changed?
• How can a phone carry your voice across oceans?

Read and find out in the proven winner Phones Keep Us Connected!

This is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series are:

• hands-on and visual
• acclaimed and trusted
• great for classrooms

Top 10 reasons to love LRFOs:

• Entertain and educate at the same time
• Have appealing, child-centered topics
• Developmentally appropriate for emerging readers
• Focused; answering questions instead of using survey approach
• Employ engaging picture book quality illustrations
• Use simple charts and graphics to improve visual literacy skills
• Feature hands-on activities to engage young scientists
• Meet national science education standards
• Written/illustrated by award-winning authors/illustrators & vetted by an expert in the field
• Over 130 titles in print, meeting a wide range of kids' scientific interests

Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062386670
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Series:	Let's Read and Find Out Science Series: Level 2
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	638,997
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than ninety books for children. She has written several books in the Let’s Read And Find Out Science series, including: WHAT LIVES IN A SHELL?, an NSTA/CBC “Outstanding Science Trade Book” and winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s “Best Children’s Book” award; WHAT IS THE WORLD MADE OF?, a Children’s Book of the Month Club Main Selection; WHAT’S ALIVE?, also named an AAAS “Best Children’s Book”; HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE, an NSTA/CBC “Outstanding Science Trade Book,” DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, winner of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio “Best Book Award”

Kathleen was a children’s book editor for over ten years before becoming a full-time writer. When she is not reading, researching, writing, or editing she loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing and curating fossils for her local natural history museums. She lives in Berkeley, CA.

Editorial Reviews

"A well-explained, informative presentation on the telephone’s historical development as well as how cell phones work. Featuring a diverse crew of characters, the upbeat digital illustrations are attractive and, equally important, very helpful in showing hard-to-visualize concepts." — Booklist (starred review)

"With the assistance of cheery, bright illustrations and diagrams, the author explains concepts such as sound waves, radio waves, and frequency—and how these work to make communication possible. Zoehfeld explores how early discoveries and inventions, such as the telegraph and telephones, led to modern innovations. Encouraging readers to write down ideas and draw sketches, the book is an invitation to think about past breakthroughs in new ways. A good resource for classrooms and independent researchers." — School Library Journal

"Suggestions for experiments to perform with string phones can be found in the backmatter along with a glossary and a short timeline of phone history. A sturdy addition to a venerable series, filling in a ubiquitous device's historical and technological background." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

"A well-explained, informative presentation on the telephone’s historical development as well as how cell phones work. Featuring a diverse crew of characters, the upbeat digital illustrations are attractive and, equally important, very helpful in showing hard-to-visualize concepts."

Booklist (starred review)

04/01/2017
K-Gr 3—An up-to-date history of communication, from telegraphs and Morse code to radio waves and cell phones. With the assistance of cheery, bright illustrations and diagrams, the author explains concepts such as sound waves, radio waves, and frequency—and how these work to make communication possible. Zoehfeld explores how early discoveries and inventions, such as the telegraph and telephones, led to modern innovations. Encouraging readers to write down ideas and draw sketches, the book is an invitation to think about past breakthroughs in new ways. Small print and the inclusion of scientific concepts make this a challenge for independent readers, but a glossary is appended, defining words highlighted throughout. A short time line illustrates how the covered devices have evolved over the years. VERDICT A good resource for classrooms and independent researchers.—Denise Moore, formerly at O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD

School Library Journal

2017-01-25
A basic explanation for younger children who wonder how telephones work and how they were invented.Zoehfeld begins by describing how sound waves work (tucking in instructions for making a string telephone), then goes on to the invention of telegraphs and Morse code, followed by close looks at Alexander Graham Bell's telephone and Thomas Edison's improvements to it. She then traces the development of wireless networks and cellphones and ends by inviting readers to think about what they wish future phones might be able to do. Suggestions for experiments to perform with the string phones readers (of course) made earlier on can be found in the backmatter along with a glossary and a short timeline of phone history. Along with labeled views of early devices and their insides, Nowowiejska adds both cartoon portraits of early inventors and a racially diverse cast of modern children (including one in a wheelchair and several with glasses). Oddly, although a child is pictured on a smartphone in an opening sequence, the author ends her discourse before the development of today's telephony, and the timeline cuts off with the first portable phones in 1973. A bit behind the times but nevertheless a sturdy addition to a venerable series, filling in a ubiquitous device's historical and technological background. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews