With a comic-book feel to the illustrations, The Invention Hunters Discover How Electricity Works by Korwin Briggs (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019) hilariously tells the story of discovers who appear suddenly in a girl’s backyard and storm in the house, hoping to find inventions. As they try to guess the purpose of unknown items, the kid explainer clarifies the items they found and their functions.
Our child narrator manages to teach the Invention Hunters that a lamp is run by electricity (which was “discovered” many years past), a battery and other power sources move electrons on an atomic level, a toaster uses electricity to make things hot, and magnets can generate electricity. The text includes comic bubbles for the people’s dialogue as well as extend text and diagrams to show the girl’s explanations. A wide variety of electricity concepts are introduced in a fun way and
A disclaimer at the end points out that the invention hunters are never correct and the kid explainer is always correct. Totally unnecessary! Any discerning reader would know that the labels they give to the items is not correct. That is what makes the book so funny.
