Are you tangled in the World Wide Web? As a parent, the Internet can seem intimidating--especially if you're trying to give your kids a tour. Jean Armour Polly, publisher of Net-Mom News, has come to the rescue with this extraordinary resource packed with thousands of educational and entertaining sites. As hefty as a phone book, this third edition is updated for 1999 and includes a bonus CD-ROM with Internet games and tutorials for the whole family. These yellow pages have an easy-to-follow, alphabetical index containing a huge variety of entries, from amphibians to yoga. Sections are marked with the letters of the alphabet, in the form of vertical tabs down the outer edge of each page. Once inside a category, you'll find a list of all the kid-appropriate sites on that topic, complete with brief summaries and the URLs (Internet addresses) for each location. Pages are spiced up with quiz questions from the "Net Files," such as "Where is the geographic center of the North American continent?" The answers are provided upside down, along with the URL for a site that will expand a Net surfer's knowledge on the subject. Kids will love this bottomless source of fun and learning, and parents will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their kids are surfing safely.
From Library Journal
When film first appeared, it took years for the first filmmakers to unbolt the camera from the floor and do more than parade people in front of the lens. These ubiquitous "yellow" pages to the Internet are similar to bolted-down cameras. The organization is always alphabetic, a weak way to organize information since freedom does not really need to come next to fun, and "see references" are never as easy as HTML links. In sheer numbers of citations, they pale in comparison with the resource collections on gateway sites such as Yahoo, and in terms of selectivity, users would be better served by the evolving bookmark files in many public libraries. The only benefit is the format's familiarity, making these gentle introductions for folks new to the net. If newbies are still asking for this sort of hand-holding, buy Polly's book, which is the most selective and focused of the three.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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