Online Kids: A Young Surfer's Guide to Cyberspace [Paperback]

Preston Gralla (Author)

Book Description

Cyberspace is the place for fun, facts, and fantastic adventures

Surf's up in cyberspace! So grab your (key)board and catch the computer wave with this user-friendly, jam-packed guide and activity book. Online Kids will get you wired with complete information on the coolest sites online. Where else can you go to talk hoops with Michael Jordan, e-mail the president, travel to ancient civilizations, or get help with your science homework from a real scientist? From the NASA Shuttle Web to Walt Disney World, from the World Wide Web of Sports to the National Geographic Society, Online Kids tells you where it is and how to get there—including a special Coolness Index for each site.

You'll also find step-by-step instructions for great online activities:

• Make a fun-filled science museum at home
• Create an up-to-date space shuttle mission log
• Put together a personalized birthday photo collage
• Design your own awesome Web page, and more

You'll also find advice on choosing the right online service, navigating the World Wide Web, sending e-mail, and keeping safe online.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Before you give your kids the keys to cyberspace, hand them this excellent guidebook. Ideal for older grade-schoolers and teenagers, Online Kids features great site reviews, fun activities, and loads of information on important Internet-related topics. Though written by an adult, the book boasts a kid-friendly tone that young Web surfers will enjoy. It starts out with the basics--"What is cyberspace?"--and moves on to explain how to use the Internet safely, how to choose an online service, and how to navigate the Web. Site reviews, which run the gamut from the educational to the recreational, are jam-packed with information and are rated for both coolness and usefulness. The reviews are also unflinchingly honest: they describe the not-so-hot features of a site as well as the good parts. When kids get tired of surfing, they can take a virtual tour of Washington D.C., create a science museum at home, or try one of the many other activities scattered throughout the book. If kids are interested in chatting online, they should make sure comments are received as intended by checking out the book's sections on smileys (little drawings of expressive faces made with letters and symbols from the keyboard) and cybershorthand. B4N. (Bye for now!)

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8?An upbeat, well-organized, approachable introduction to the Internet that compares favorably with the excellent Internet for Kids (SYBEX, 1995). Online Kids has the sort of easy-going, simple approach needed to demystify the online world. There is a chapter on where to find chat for kids, how to use smileys, and what kid-oriented newsgroups are out there. Every site is rated for "Usefulness" and "Coolness" on a scale of 1-10. There is also information on whether each resource is on an online service or the Internet, "How to Get There" (addresses), and a brief description of the resource. In the final chapter, Gralla addresses readers' desire to make their own home pages on the Web, explaining how to get started. A smattering of photographs of chat rooms, home pages, etc. illustrate the text. The glossary is generally easy to understand, though some definitions may be over the heads of the intended audience. A welcome addition to the growing ranks of Internet titles for youth that scores high points both for usefulness and coolness.?Jennifer Fleming, Boston Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471135461
• ISBN-13: 978-0471135463
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,718,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for parents/kids to get started, find great sites, July 11, 2001

By 

"ljellen" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Online Kids: A Young Surfer's Guide to Cyberspace (Paperback)

I'm a parent and a grandmother, and this book helped me show my 7 year old granddaughter some really fun and interesting sites on the World Wide Web. The other thing it did was to explain a few things I didn't know, like the difference between the Internet and online services, and some basic information for the totally clueless on how to get started on setting up a computer at home. We found the site where you can look at the earth in crescent from a satellite, zoom in on any place in the world (that's not in the dark) and be amazed. She loved looking in Antarctica, and at the Nile...and then finding games to play, and the fact that she could type in the letters herself and get around. Non readers need help on what each site means, but this book is one more tool to let a child see the VALUE of reading (what site do I want?), find places to learn, and get proficient with typing and using the Internet.

It's okay to not know! Just give this book to someone who WANTS to know how to break into Cyberspace, and watch them soar, like my granddaughter has! PS If you don't want to invest in a computer until you know what it's all about, go to a public library and look up some of these sites for yourself with or without your child, and see for yourself what it's all about. I have the 1999 edition, and hope he puts out a new one soon...be wary of the first edition in 1996 as it will be outdated.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful book!, December 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Online Kids: A Young Surfer's Guide to Cyberspace (Paperback)

I've always had trouble finding the right place to go to on the net. When I got this book, I tried out all the fun places to go to (well, not all) and then suddenly I made a lot of favourite web sites. Although the book didn't cover all the best places, the sites Gralla recommended had a lot of links to other sites. So far, the only problem was that some of the sites that looked interesting was available only on America Online or Prodigy, which was why i rated this book a 9.
D23H

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great BOOK!, March 12, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Online Kids: A Young Surfer's Guide to Cyberspace (Paperback)

I like this book because it told me a lot about computers!