Incredible (Incredible Internet - Michael Cox)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Incredible Internet - Michael Cox
Date:	05/12/08 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant facts, well laid out

Disadvantages: A little dry towards the end

The incredible Internet is another book in 'The Knowledge' series written for children aged between 9-14. Various authors write this series and each book tackles a different subject. The fun way in which the books are written allows them to discuss some difficult subjects and theories without them seeming boring or over complicated. In this way the books give children a vast amount of information and knowledge without the children being aware that they are learning so much and more importantly without giving them a brain overload.

Although I have mentioned that these books are primarily written for children I think that they are just as suitable for young adults as the vast amount of information in them is amazing and is told in a concise yet extremely informative way. I am 18 and have really enjoyed reading the books in this series. I found them not only to be informative but also interesting and at times quite intriguing.

The incredible Internet as you can probably imagine is a book that discusses anything and everything to do with the Internet. The book covers topics such as before the Internet, how the Internet was invented, geek speak and pop-ups. On top of this hackers and emails are also discussed. The book presents the information in a very matter of fact way and tries to keep technical jargon to a minimum in order for the book to appeal and be understand by a wide audience.

The end of the book also contains a multiple-choice quiz. To complete the quiz however you will need access to the Internet, as the answer section of the quiz is simply a collection of Internet links to sites where the answer to that particular question can be found. I do however think that this is a good feature as it puts a practical element into everything you have learnt about the Incredible Internet.

Although I did find this book very interesting from the beginning I did also find that the book was a little too long. At 168 pages the book doesn't look long but with endless information relating to the Internet as an entity I did find myself getting a little bored towards the end, as the book became a tad dry. To incorporate all the information I suppose that this cannot be helped but it does mean that the book is probably best read in small chunks over a decent length of time.

To stop the dryness of the book getting too much however the information contained within the book is interspersed with a large number of drawings, comic strips and diagrams. As well as this the book is split into easily manageable chapters, which are further broken down, by bold headings, dates and lists. All of this helps break-up the text and in this way make it more accessible to the reader.

All in all I would highly recommend this book as well as the others in the series. It retails around the £5 mark but it would definitely be worth your while checking online to see if you can find a bargain. The price however is well worth the knowledge that can be gained from this wonderful little read.

Summary: A book packed with interesting facts