Critique de School Library Journal

A detailed description of topics and issues involved in designing, implementing, and maintaining Web sites for children. This is not a technical manual, but rather a prosaic list of strategies for building an appropriate site based on anecdotal observations and documented facts with bibliographic references regarding children's learning habits and environments. Librarians evaluate materials, including Internet materials, according to a common set of criteria. This guide provides suggestions that address these criteria, imploring designers to think about age-appropriate usability, navigability, audience, accessibility, and scope. Issues regarding children's privacy and online safety, functioning as a team of designers, engaging young users, and site maintenance are major areas of guidance provided. This book can be used as a beginner's first stop and as a webmaster's companion. It is uncomplicated and easy to read. Several grayscale images, mostly of sample Web pages, are included, but they are very tiny, which somewhat dulls the desired effect. However, the text is clearly written for anyone who wants to create Web sites to engage children in fun/functional online learning/discovery. This book addresses enduring models for learning, guidelines for user engagement, accessibility, and issues that persevere despite changing technologies.-Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.