Marconi's Secret

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Using the convention of a fictitious grandfather reminiscing with his
grandchildren on Signal Hill, Newfoundland, this book details the story
of Marconi’s experiment in 1901. Grandad’s father was one of the
local men hired to help Marconi, and Grandad recounts the eyewitness
account he grew up hearing. With occasional questions from the children,
and periodic interjections of “said Grandad,” the book is actually a
long description of Marconi’s momentous achievement and its importance
to modern society. The “secret” referred to in the title is the fact
that Marconi kept quiet about the reason he was in St. John’s, as
scientists did not believe it could be done and others were “worried
about the changes wireless communication might bring.” This will seem
a pretty tame secret to young readers expecting to share a delicious
revelation.

The full-color illustrations have a cartoonish nature that serves to
lighten the text. (It’s too bad the publisher saw fit to add
full-sentence captions drawn from the text as they distract from the
narrative flow.) The book also includes one of the Morse alphabets
(sadly not the international one with its recognizable dots and dashes
for SOS) and a map showing the relative positions of Cornwall, St.
John’s, and Cape Cod (Marconi’s first choice of location). These
pages along with the lecture-style narrative, mean that children are
unlikely to be drawn to this book except for school projects.
Recommended with reservations.