Special Effects (Exceptional Social Studies Titles for Upper Grades)
Grade 5-9–The history and techniques of film, from the beginning of cinema to the current digital era, are explained. The first section gives a sense of how the movies have always depended on trick effects, and how imaginative people have found ways to create believable effects on screen. The book introduces the work of such pioneers as Georges Méliès and stop-motion animators Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. The second section examines how various types of effects are actually created and does a reasonable job of communicating technical information through text and numerous diagrams. While the book is nicely designed, with black-and-white and color photos from well-known movies set against bright blue or green backgrounds, there are some glaring mistakes; e.g., Gromit of Wallace and Gromit fame is incorrectly spelled Grommet. The list of the winners of the Academy Award for Special Effects (through 2004) is a who's who of the last several decades, although one could quibble that the official name of the award is Achievement in Visual Effects. A color image fromThe Lord of the Ringson the cover is sure to attract attention.–Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.