BKINKDYP.RVW   981025

"The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages/Golden Directory", Jean
Armour Polly, 1997, 0-07-882340-4, U$19.99
%A   Jean Armour Polly mom@netmom.com
%C   300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario   L1N 9B6
%D   1997
%G   0-07-882340-4
%I   McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne
%O   U$19.99 905-430-5000 fax: 905-430-5020
%P   576 p.
%T   "The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages/Golden Directory second
      edition"

A great many of the child or educationally oriented books on the
Internet have lists of resources, but this addition has considerably
more range, or at least size, than most of the others.  As with
various titles in the "yellow pages" ("Golden Directory" outside of
the US) series, the collection is a massive one, even though it
couldn't be exhaustive.  For kids, with incessant demands for
information on every topic under the sun, massive is what you want. 
(It even has a listing for Alta Vista, Digital's "mother of all"
search engines.)

The main bulk of the book lies in the listings.  Rather ironically, in
attempting to provide a sufficient number of subject headings, the
author/editor may have gone a little overboard.  There is, for
example, a section on the United States, including subsections on both
the federal government and politics, but there is also a main subject
listing for U.S. Presidents and First Ladies.  Then again, there isn't
a history subsection under United States, but there are subsections
for U.S. History and U.S. History-Civil War under the main History
subject.  The index is reasonable, though not exhaustive, and should
make up for shortcomings in the organizational structure.

There is also an introduction with a few useful tips that
unfortunately seem to get lost in a fair amount of verbiage.  A
concluding section seems to have sometimes questionable answers to
parent's questions, and some parenting related sites.

The sites are well chosen.  There is a wide range of both topics and
levels.  (A helpful feature for a future edition might be the
inclusion of indicators for grade and age suitability.)  Occasionally
the descriptions contain erroneous or misleading "facts": this is
possibly due to taking the claims listed in those sites at face value
without checking.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996, 1998   BKINKDYP.RVW   981025