Science and Power; Wheels to Rockets; Scrolls to Computers

'Ideas and Inventions' is an entirely appropriate title for this series. These books will help children to understand the motivation of the inventor and discoverer. We see the Wright Brothers returning from the daily grind of bicycle repair to evening research into flight in their attempts to conquer the skies: we can imagine their feelings when a gust of wind picked up their plane and wrecked it, or when, at last, Flight One took off.

Science and Power covers technological improvements from farming to medicine; Scrolls to Computers ranges from early printing to international telecommunications; Wheels to Rockets examines discoveries from early wheels to jet transport. The books have a stimulating text that is clear and interesting, and the illustrations by Robert Ingpen emphasise human endeavour and achievement rather than technological detail. The coverage is inevitably broad-brush but the series is an excellent introduction to the human dimension of inventive genius.