Back to School with DK Canada!

 

I cannot believe that summer is almost over. When I was young, summer seemed to last a long time. The older I get though, the faster time flies. But the timing of back to school doesn't change - Labour Day heralds the end of summer for kids.

 

DK Canada has come up with some great titles (at some great prices) that any kid would find helpful at homework time in their Back to School Boutique. There's a wide variety of Math, English and Science reference books for various ages to choose from.  

And really - the titles aren't just for kids.

 

I started flipping through

Ideas That Changed the World: Incredible Inventions and the Stories Behind Them,

put it down to start supper and found my twenty something son just as engrossed as I was.

 

There are six categories with fifteen to twenty entries in each - Genius, Great Gizmos, Handy Gadgets, On the Move, Explore and Culture.

 

I love books like this - I always pick up new random facts. Did you know LEGO was invented in 1932 by a carpenter in Denmark? And that the name comes from the Danish words for 'play well'?

 

The history of charge or credit cards is pretty neat. Although 'storecards' were offered by businesses to their customers in the early 1900's, the first 'charge plate' - a metal plate with the customer's name and address was introduced in 1929.The first credit card was unveiled by Diner's Club in the 1950's. And of course we now have cards with our personal information embedded in them.

 

But the one I really enjoyed was finding out about the origins of barcodes. (Faithful readers will know that I work in a library and scan barcodes for a good part of my day!) The patent for barcodes was filed in 1949 when two American students stumbled upon the idea of using bars and spaces to identify food products for a customer. After much development, the first barcodes and scanners were used in a supermarket in 1974. Virtually every product that we see in a store now carries a UPC (Universal Product Code) Next on the horizon is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) which is being used in some stores (and libraries!) already. 

 

As always, the layout of DK books is fantastic. Each up to date entry includes the past, present and future of the topic in a clear, well laid out set of pages, accompanied by DK's trademark colour photographs, all on thick, glossy stock.

 

 Any of their titles would be an excellent addition to a home library!