Absolutely the finest introduction to computers ever written. I seem to have lost touch with my copy but it always had a place on my shelf when I was an IT manager - it was great to lend to people who needed an introduction they could absorb in just a (very) few minutes.

What amazes me more than anything is that we've gone from no computers to computers in everything -- in less than a single lifetime! That truly is incredible.

Interesting to compare the 1971 and 1979 pages describing the future of computers: http://www.pointlessmuseum.com/computer/027.html

One has microcircuits with 10s of components, 8 years later there's the microprocessor with thousands.

What amazes me is how accurate and detailed this book is, given that it was intended for children. It reads like it was written by a computer expert helped by a children's writer, rather than the other way around.

Too many books for children are written by a specialist in writing childrens' books, rather than someone who knows what they are writing about. The writer gets a half baked idea of what the book is about, and then even that gets dumbed down in the name of accessability.

I owned the 1979 edition of this. While I had already been fiddling with computers for a few years before I'd read it, this book and its awesome illustrations (for the time) really helped me "get it."

I just ordered one on abebooks - hard to resist at only a dollar plus shipping!

I always liked those books when I was younger. I wish 7 year old sspencer had encountered this particular one...

I still have a copy of this :) The ladybird books were just great at this sort of thing.