David at What’s Good To Read has dived into our second Non-fiction picture book, Mister T.V. written by Julie Fulton with endearing illustrations by Patrick Corrigan;
Mister T.V. is a snapshot of John Logie Baird and his inventions, from being a child to adulthood. From a young age he was inventing things using bits and pieces found around the house. His inventions included a telephone exchange that the telephone company put a stop to. Even into adulthood, he didn’t have much money and he still collected bits and pieces to create his inventions.
A lot of his experiments failed but John never gave up and he preserved, improving his inventions and inventing new things, ensuring his place in history. A lot of his inventions are still in use today.
Overall, Mister T.V. is an excellent book that introduces children to one of the great inventors of our time. This book gives an insight into science and inventing as well as being inquisitive, patience, motivation and perseverance – a great example of “if at first you don’t succeed, try again”.
The text is written in a fun and easy to read way that children will understand and enjoy. The illustrations are big and vivid, clearly explaining what is going on.
The book is also filled with fun facts about inventions throughout history and their timeline including, John’s exploits into the development of radar, infrared night vision, fibre-optics and even 3D TV.
This is a great book to help teach children about the history of one of the world’s greatest (and probably most used) inventions. Hopefully giving them an interest in science whilst teaching them to try hard in everything they do. Mister T.V. is an excellent biography of a very clever inventor who changed the world forever and something that children can relate to as we still use his invention 94 years later.
A great kickstart into history and science.