Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life

Brenda Reed is a public services librarian in the Education Library at
Queen’s University.

Elementary-school students searching for information on Alexander Graham
Bell will be glad to come across this brilliantly designed biography in
their school or public library. The book features “take-a-break and
browse” pages in which a miniature Alexander Graham Bell points to a
particular item and addresses the reader in the first person, as in
“[here] is my lab in Boston, where I transmitted the first words by
telephone.”

Elizabeth MacLeod is the author of several Kids Can information books,
including The Phone Book (1995), a popular children’s guide to the
telephone. In this book she provides clear, simple explanations of
Alexander Graham Bell’s key inventions. Just as important is her
portrayal of Bell as an inventor who gave society much more than the
telephone. In these pages, we see a man who dedicated his life to
bettering the communication possibilities for the deaf (one of the
book’s chapters is devoted to Helen Keller). MacLeod also conveys
Bell’s love for his home in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Her accessible and
well-researched book includes a two-page chronology and a list of
relevant museums and Web sites. Highly recommended for all school and
public libraries.