The Electric War by Mike Winchell is a juvenile nonfiction book about the three powerhouses of electricity–Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse.
In the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, electricity was just beginning to promise more to a world that was evolving at record speeds. Competition was fierce to become the first person to bring light to the world at large.
Who would be the first to create affordable electricity? Will it be Edison, the uncompromising proponent of direct current. Or would it be Tesla or Westinghouse and their determination to prove alternating currents.
This book is a glimpse into the battle between three of the greatest inventors of all time.
Nonfiction isn’t usually my go-to genre. I can do a good biography and a narrative driven nonfiction but I tend to skim anything else. But a colleague of mine recommended this one for my STEM club and if I could get my hands on more copies, I think I would definitely consider it.
One of the things I really liked about this book, was that you got to see each of these three men from their very beginning. You read about how they became the self man men who raced to light the world. And it was drawn out. It was exactly what you needed/wanted to know in order to get an understanding of where each man came from.
This book is accessible for 5-6th graders and honestly, as an adult, I found it to be super informative and a really good refresher. It was technical but not so much so that one would be turned off by it.
I won’t say that this was a fast read. It wasn’t. It got dry at times and I felt like I needed a break here and there. But ultimately, this would be a great option for a reluctant non-fiction reader or someone who needed to do a report or research assignment.
This one gets 4 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-
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