The Wind at Work: An Activity Guide to Windmills

Gr 4–9—This edition is similar in scope, organization, and format to the 1997 volume, but has expanded from 9 chapters to 10 and includes developments in wind technology since publication of the earlier book. Once again, the author covers the history of windmills, and looks at the types and purposes of European and American varieties, the life of a windmiller, evolving wind technology, and possible future uses of wind as an alternative energy source. Captioned black-and-white reproductions of photographs, paintings, and diagrams appear throughout, but lack contrast. For example, it is difficult to see the differences in the key accompanying a map on "United States-Annual Average Wind Speed at 80 m." Each chapter ends with one or more related activities that include experiments, crafts, recipes, and energy-conservation exercises. Appropriate notations indicate when adult supervision is needed. Titles of these projects are on the contents pages, which is in contrast to the first edition, which referred to them generically as "Activities." Topics in the appended materials remain the same with the addition of websites to the bibliography. Useful for classroom or home science studies, this book explains wind power in an understandable style. Libraries needing more materials on alternative energy or wanting to replace the earlier volume should consider it.—Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OH