Bridges & Towers and Tunnels
(Ages 8-12)
About Bridges
Bridges features female engineer Jan Lapont as the narrator. She invites the reader to become part of the bridge-building team by building models of bridges and testing them for strength.
The featured bridges are beam, arch, suspension and moveable bridges. Explanations about how they’re constructed are interspersed with information about famous bridges. Using household materials, children are invited to experiment with various types of bridges to determine how to build them in the strongest way possible.
About Towers and Tunnels
Also narrated by female engineer Jan Lapont, readers are presented with building activities to discover how towers and tunnels work and which shapes make for strong structures.
Awards
1995 Silver Birch Award, Ontario Library Association
While I was writing these books, my poor family was subjected to my increasing knowledge of bridges and to my penchant for puns and riddles. During long road trips, when they were trapped in the car, they were questioned about the type of bridge we were travelling over or under and were asked to improve upon my riddles, e.g. What bridge can you never cross? Answer: The bridge on your nose!
Reviews
Bridges
“Bridges is a great resource for teachers…It’s written in an inquiry-based way, interspersed with jokes and challenges.”
— 49th Shelf
“Etta Kaner…has created a marvelous combination of information and activities to complement units on bridges….One copy of this publication will not be enough for a library! It will appeal to teachers, students and parents for projects, classroom study and home activities. Highly recommended.”
— Journal of Canadian Materials for Young People, Brenda Partridge
“Using it for bridge building in a gifted class. A good resource.”
— Amazon Customer review
“My son loves this book! It is packed with a lot of information on bridges and has nicely drawn pictures on every page. There are easy projects to do, one of which my son used for his science project at school.
I highly recommend this book for the child - and their parents -who want to learn more about bridges!”
— Amazon Customer review
Towers and Tunnels
“Towers and Tunnels is similarly informative (and a quick lesson for teachers) about soil-testing, laying foundations, frameworks, wind effects, elevators. There are case studies of the Eiffel Tower, the CN Tower and a few other famous towers.”
— 49th Shelf
Available from these online retailers:
Bridges
Towers and Tunnels