Biography of Thomas Edison by: Jan Adkins (Chapter Non Fiction)

This biography was a chapter book all about Thomas Edison and his many inventions.  The book starts off by introducing the Edison family and the birth of Thomas Edison on February 11, 1847.  His middle name was Alva, so they called him 'Al' for short. He was known to always be so curious about the world, and always got into trouble.  At 10 years old he discovered science and his mother gave him a book filled with experiments; Thomas finished every one.  He always had claimed that his mother was the making of him, and his driving force.  In 1854, Thomas' family moved to Port Huron, Michigan from Milan, Ohio.  When they arrived there, Edison decided to quit school to become a candy butcher and newsboy. In 1862, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War had occurred, and Thomas Edison paid a telegrapher to send a bulletin about the battle along the rail line so people would be eager to buy the newspapers.  This was when Edison began to learn telegraphy.  One of Edison's first hard works was the automatic vote counter that involved a complex mixture of electrical principles and mechanics.  After getting married in 1871, Edison invented the carbon button microphone which made the telephone a practical instrument in 1877.  Only a few years later in 1878, he invented the phonograph which was his favorite invention that he had ever made.  The success of telegraphy made Edison wonder if there were other uses for electricity, such as making light.  In 1879, Edison's invention was demonstrated to the press when he showed them the first practical electric light bulb.  One of Edison's longest projects started in 1891 and lasted for 10 years.  The purpose of this project was to separate iron ore electromagnetically.  In 1894, the first Edison kinetograph parlor opened up in New York City, and in 1910 Edison demonstrated the Kinetophone's moving pictures with sounds.  Thomas Edisond died in 1931, but he will always be remembered as the man with all the amazing inventions. 

I would use this in the classroom to introduce Thomas Edison in a way that the students will get a full range of details.  This book is also good because it includes a lot of different pictures of his inventions, as well as vocabulary words defined at the bottom of the page that are used in the book.  I also like the fact that they have a time line of Thomas Edison's life at the end of the book so that the students can see a short overview of everything that they just read.  I think a great activity for this book is to make their own time line of Edison's life to make sure that they comprehended what they have read.  Another activity can be to have the students try and come up with their own small invention to see how creative they can be.