By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Mindy Gidan

Title: Electric Mischief
Author: Alan Bartholomew
Illustrated: Lynn Bartholomew
Number of Pages: 48

I know you have a brain, so use it and don't get the book Electric Mischief. Although this book is made for kids an adult ends up doing most the work. This book takes lots of time to find your supplies, and a lot of patience.

One of the main things I disliked about this book was that you spend most of your time getting the supplies. To get all the supplies for 1 project you go to 5 to 6 stores. You end up going to special hobby stores and there are other things you can find at your own house. In all the projects in this book you end up spending 2 to 3 days on each project which is not the estimated time, this means you need lots of patience. The projects take a lot of time and patience because the instructions are not well written. The instructions also may cause people to get very frustrated. Electric Mischief has 9 projects and each cost $10-$20. Most of the projects also need parent supervision because of the use of tools like drills and saws.

The age I would recommend for this book is age 14 and up. These ages are suitable for this book because then they might be able to understand the instructions. I would also recommend that you have a parent that has lots of time to spare. In conclusion I thought this book was not worth the money. (September, 2002)