Making Contact!: Marconi Goes Wireless by Monica Kulling

Making Contact!: Marconi Goes Wireless Reviews

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  Elizabeth

  The Great Ideas series is a fabulous introduction for all ages to a variety of inventors. Making Contact! covers a better-known inventor than most of them, but it is still a solid introduction for kids in need of basic information. Although I've enjoyed Richard Rudnicki's work elsewhere, I didn't love it here (and have preferred some of the other artists from the series), but it still did the job in a cute way that was easy to absorb. Definitely recommended!
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  Jo Oehrlein

  The story of Marconi and how he invented radio.
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  Lynn A. Davidson

  This is the story of Guglielmo Marconi and his exciting and important invention of the first wireless messaging - the telegraph - in the 1890's. Nicely illustrated.
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  Julie Tate

  Great picture book introduction to Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph process. It left us wanting to know more.
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  Britten Gordon

  This non-fiction book is a great piece of literature to read to you students when talking about the Industrial Revolution. This being because the telephone was one of the most important inventions of that time period. This is also a great book to read to your students when they're at that age of being curious of their abilities.
• 
  Bobbi Miller

  Monica Kulling’s newest book, Making Contact! Marconi Goes Wireless, is the fifth book in Tundra’s Great Ideas series. Guglielmo Marconi, born in 1874, was also fascinated with Morse code, the language of the telegraph, as well as electric storms and Benjamin Franklin. By age twenty, he was determined to be the first to find a way to use radio waves to send wireless messages. No one believed it was possible.
  
  Monica’s poetic narrative – a hallmark of all her books – breathes life to this character as she explores the thematic values of determination and persistence. So of course he invests the wireless telegraph, and at age 21. But his story was just beginning. Demonstrating his invention around England, he gained the support of Queen Victoria. He built transmitters that allowed him to send messages ship to shore. Encouraged by this success, he set his sights on a much larger goal: to send a signal across the Atlantic Ocean!
  
  Using acrylics on watercolor paper, Richard Rudnicki’s characters are full of the same energy. His sweeping landscapes are particularly striking. The middle double page spread of the Newfoundland coastline, with its cold grey colors, whirling storm clouds, and the bright dot of a kite flying in the wind make me shiver with the same awe.
  
  Monica’s endnote brings the full measure of the power of the wireless telegraph. As the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic struck an iceberg, the telegraph operator sent out Morse code for help: Save Our Ship. S.O.S. If it weren’t for Marconi’s wireless telegraph, the Carpathian would not have come to the rescue of the survivors.
  
  This book is a wonderful read aloud exploring an interesting piece of history!
  
• 
  Philippa Dowding

  Monica Kulling has now created her fifth wonderful book in the award-winning "Great Idea Series," for children ages 5-12. I wish these books were available when my children were young, since they make scientists, inventors and thinkers into real, everyday people. "Making Contact: Marconi Goes Wireless", tells the fascinating story of Guglielmo (Goo-le-EL-mo) Marconi, a great Italian inventor, whose hero was Benjamin Franklin. We learn that as a young boy Marconi loved science and invention, and his favourite story was of Benjamin Franklin's famous "kite and key" experiment. We also learn that Marconi wasn't a good student in school, but he had an active mind and was curious about everything. His parents hired tutors for him, and he soon became fascinated with Morse Code, which he learned from a retired telegraph operator. This turned into a Eureka moment in the Italian Alps when he was twenty: could he find a way to use radio waves to send wireless messages? The rest is history, culminating in the ocean-spanning three Morse code taps, sent from Cornwall, England and received on Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland, on December 12, 1901.
  I really enjoyed learning about Marconi's Italian childhood. I also liked the little-known facts in this book, particularly the story of Queen Victoria, who hired Marconi to set up a wireless receiver so she could get daily health updates on her sick son, Albert, who was out at sea. Children will enjoy the lively art by Richard Rudnicki, and the fascinating story of Marconi, but more than that, they'll likely be wondering what they can invent themselves.
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  Nikki in Niagara

  I love picture book biographies and this series from Canadian author Monica Kulling is one of my favourites. This time she features someone more well-known than in the previous books but the invention will be unusual to children of today and yet it will show them the simple beginnings of today's "wireless" technology. Marconi's story is not particularly exciting but it shows the determination of someone who studied for the joy of it as a child (at home, with tutors) and who had perseverance as a young man to realize the dreams he believed in even when they are slow to be fulfilled. This book brings with it a new illustrator to the series and I just loved Rudnicki's attention to style and detail, especially the patterns and designs on clothing and fabric. Another satisfying entry in the Great Ideas series!
• 
  Shelli

  Making Contact!: Marconi Goes Wireless tells the interesting story of Guglielmo Marconi, who became known as the father of wireless communication.
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  Harla

  This is one book in the Great Idea Series. They are written in narrative form but are full of great information about these little known inventors.