"Thomas Edison for Kids" by Laurie Carlson c.2006, Chicago Review Press $14.95 / $20.95 Canada 148 pages

Think about your favorite cartoon or Manga character.

You know what happens when they get great ideas? Yep, a light bulb appears over their heads.

Now imagine no light bulb. Imagine no movies, recorded music, or electric can openers, and no tattoos. A man named Thomas Alva Edison invented all those things, and in the book "Thomas Edison for Kids" by Dallas author Laurie Carlson, you'll read all about Edison's life and the stories behind his creations.

Edison was born in 1847 in a prosperous little town in Ohio. The town was dependent on canal transportation, but when the railroad came to a nearby town and merchants began to ship products by train, the little town was nearly abandoned. Mr. Edison moved his family, including young Tom, to Michigan.

Edison was a rascally boy, and it seemed that he was always in trouble. He was fascinated with useful inventions and disobeyed his father repeatedly so that he could study things he liked.

His father said he didn't have good sense, but the fact was that Tom was just plain curious and always deep in thought.

When Tom was a young boy, he taught himself Morse code (a code that uses a series of "dots" and "dashes") and he became fascinated by the telegraph.

When a stranger noticed Tom's interest in the telegraph, he offered to teach Tom how to become a telegraph operator. Tom learned quickly, but his thinking got him in trouble again. He invented all sorts of things that made his job easier, but his bosses weren't impressed one bit!

As an adult, Edison knew that there was a race to find a better way to harness electricity to make light. Several different methods had been tried, and Edison sent explorers around the world to gather materials to try.

After more than 6,000 failed lab experiments, Edison finally found a product that worked. The light bulbs we use today still look very similar to the one Thomas Edison made over 100 years ago!

Do you have a budding scientist on your hands? "Thomas Edison for Kids" is the perfect book for any kid who loves to invent, build, experiment or just mess around with different compounds to see what happens.

Author Carlson does a fine job presenting a kid-friendly, detailed, highly illustrated biography of Thomas Edison, and I was delighted with the references to Edison-as-troublemaker, because it allows kids to easily identify with him.

I also appreciated the list of museums that you and your kids can visit.

Then - and this is what your future Nobel Prize Winner will love - scattered throughout this book are 21 experiments that he or she can do, using common household items to learn more about the science that's mentioned in Edison's biography.

"Thomas Edison for Kids" is a book for kids ages 12 and up, but I think a very bright, scientific-minded 9- or 10-year-old would relish it. Pick up a copy and turn your kids on to one of America's most prolific inventors.