Ships
ISBN 1 85561 894 X
Keywords Marine transport, Technology, Children
Planes
ISBN 1 85561 893 1
Keywords Air transport, Technology, Children
Trains
ISBN 1 85561 895 8
Keywords Rail transport, History, Technology, Children
Aspects of history can come suddenly on children: Titanic, The Railway Children, and innumerable films, television programmes, or books, can suddenly bring a particular aspect to their attention. That leads to two requirements: first to satisfy their curiosity and second to put the information into a historical and/or technological context. This series takes artwork from the publisher’s Travelling Through Time series and repackages it for a younger age range (or for children with learning difficulties). This is a sensible approach since the general quality of the artwork is good; it comprises a combination of commissioned paintings, diagrams and original photographs, although the impact of some of the latter might not be so obvious to the new target age range of six‐ to eight‐year‐olds. In short books with the usual chapter to each opening the coverage is inevitably very selective, especially in the Ships volume, which ranges from 5000 bc to the present day; but it does pick out and explain principles such as key technical and design concepts and the basic science underlying them.
The texts will present challenges, both in concepts and vocabulary, to the target age‐range, and most users will need adult assistance. But they try to use simple, basic words while introducing new technical terms, which are highlighted in bold and explained in the glossary. In historical terms the otherwise necessary over‐simplification sometimes goes too far, for example “There were not many airports outside the USA in the 1930s” is not the case and only partially explains the temporary dominance of the flying boat in air transport. But by and large such simplification is done well enough and at their best (notably in the Railways volume) texts and illustrations combine not only for historical accuracy but also to bring out some of the romance of travel. The technicalities are also explained simply enough with the aid of diagrams and cutaway drawings. Each volume also has an index, so that the children can, for example, find Titanic without difficulty.
These are typical Belitha Press volumes ‐ which is intended as a compliment ‐ offering reasonable coverage, sensible targetted texts, and a good, if sometimes variable, standard of illustration.
