Automobiles - Softcover

Grade 3-5 A British import that offers a look at recent improvements in car technology in order to meet economic, environmental and safety concerns. A brief text, with not-so-easy vocabulary, is greatly enhanced by crisp, brightly colored, well-labeled illustrations and good quality color photographs. The format is a bit unsettling: indeed, much of the information is conveyed through the numerous captions accompanying the illustrations, giving the whole a rather disjointed quality. Turbocharging, fuel injection, use of new materials, air bags, alternative fuels and electric cars are among the topics considered. The use of primarily European cars may be disconcerting. A section of future prototypes concludes the book, with a brief, not particularly helpful chronology, glossary and index appended. Jeanne Bendick's new edition of her 1955 standard, Automobiles (Watts, 1984), written for the same age group, touches on turbocharging, alternative fuels and the impact of the computer in the car industry, but the illustrations in Ward's book may merit its purchase also. Connie Tyrrell Burns, Morrisson-Reeves Library, Richmond, Ind.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.