From Now On
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Vol 11|No 5|February|2002 | |
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A fanciful children's story about the early days of computing when machines were huge and people fed them with paper tapes to tell them what to do, The First Computer Mouse tells the tale of a computing pioneer and his brush with a real live mouse who enjoys living under the warm belly of the first computer. Demant combines the history of early computing with an entertaining human/animal twist. Grandad explains the history of the first days of Australian computing to his grandkids and describes the colony of mice that coexisted with the computer scientists and the computer. "Why didn't you get a cat to catch the mice?" asked Anna. "Oh, because we were not allowed to have any animals near the computer." Demant manages to humanize this aspect of computer literacy with his amusing story telling while the vivid illustrations bring the story to life in a way that an elementary teacher could hold up the book for all to see and enjoy. "Grandad, if that was the first computer, you must have known the very first computer mouse." |
Photography by Jamie McKenzie |