Published by Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Summary:  Michael Emberley traces the journey of a text message from one phone to another, starting with the formation of the message in the brain, then traveling through the fingers to the phone’s glass.  Next, the signal travels to a cell tower, then on through underground cables that travel deep into the ocean.  Eventually (I’m skipping over a few steps here) the message arrives at the recipient’s phone and is received by her eyes and brain.  Although emotions can’t travel via text, the message can trigger an emotion, in this case love as a mother and child exchange messages when the mom is away on a trip.  Includes additional information and resources (which are printed on the back endpapers…grrr!).  48 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  Kudos to Michael Embereley for taking an incredibly complex process that most of us take for granted and making it interesting and understandable.  Both kids and adults will learn a lot from this introduction and the back matter adds much more.

Cons:  I definitely didn’t follow the whole process. My mind is still blown, though.