On this page
mixed machines (6)
vehicles (4)
engineering (5)
computers (4)
nostalgia! (9)
28 books
Last updated January 2024
Are you a geek or a nerd? Then is the page for you. It's all about techy books: computers, vehicles, robots, inventions.
My first children's books were about the internet when it was pretty much alien territory to most people. I first used the web in either late 1994 or early 1995 (using a browser called Mosaic which was pretty much string and pixels). I'd already been writing about using computers with children for years. And I'd been using email, FTP and other internetish things since the early 1980s. The first computer I used was a Commodore Pet in 1977, and I learned to program in Strathclyde BASIC. Anyone remember that? It's basically pteradactyls counting on their binary toes.
There are all kinds of machines. New ones, old ones, some in space, complicated ones, simple ones and weird ones.
Making History: Mars Rover (Silver Dolphin, 2022)
Curious Questions and Answers: Space Machines (Miles Kelly, 2021)
Making History: Titanic (Silver Dolphin, 2021)
500 Fantastic Facts: Inventions (Arcturus, 2020)
You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Simple Machines (Salariya, 2018)
Inventions (TickTock, 2014)
Don't even ask what my car's like. It's small and blue and sweet but certainly not extreme or a record-breaker. And I hardly use it. My main vehicle is a bicycle (also blue).
Extreme Machines (Carlton, 2017)
Mega Machine Record Breakers (Carlton, 2014)
Runner-up for the ALCS award, 2015
Aerospace Engineering (Crabtree, 2013)
Slipstream: World's Fastest (Hachette, 2012)
I know — one of the three things I was never going to write about (along with music and sport). There aren't so many of them, if you don't count those vehicle books above or the space vehicle books.
The Science of Sea-Faring (Franklin Watts, 2019)
Genetic Engineering (Crabtree, 2016)
Agricultural Engineering (Crabtree, 2015)
Optical Engineering (Crabtree, 2014)
Audio Engineering (Crabtree, 2014)
Aerospace Engineering (Crabtree, 2013)
Let's get the safety bit over and done with first. The emergency exits are here, here, here and here. If you're sub-adult and going to use the computer, you need to know how to do it safely.
I have written many, many books about computers and the Internet but most of them are not included here as they go out of date very quickly.
You Wouldn't Want to Live Without the Internet (Salaryia, 2015)
Keeping Safe Online (Franklin Watts, 2014)
Anatomy of an Investigation: Investigating a Cyber Attack (Raintree, 2014)
These books form the first series I ever wrote, and they were very early for a series of books about computers for kids. No one thought kids would be interested in computers... You won't want to buy these now, as they are so out of date, but the covers are colourful so they're here to jazz the page up and for a little nostalgia spot.
Whizz Kids series (Belitha, 2001), eight titles
And this is my first children's book . There were only a million web pages. Can you believe there ever was such a time? I created a Neopets account [Google it!] to do this book – I was one of the first 200 Neopet users. Yay! Claim to fame! I've lost the login details, though.
Internet action: Chilling Out (Belitha, 2000)
Do you want to find out about more science books? There are books about:
>> our planet (and its neighbours)