STOP AND GO

Johnson and Jackson’s eye-catching cover is the sharpest part of this bland and historically dubious tale of Garrett Morgan’s invention of the traffic signal.

In "a time when there were no stop lights" (the early 1920s, though it’s not specified), horses, buggies and bicycles share roads with cars. Morgan, standing at an intersection, witnesses a traumatic accident in which a car crashes head-on into a horse-drawn carriage. The dramatic illustration of this moment is appropriately disturbing, showing the horse upside-down with comics-like jagged yellow stars around it. Upset by the accident, Morgan ponders the problem and "invent[s] the first electric signal light to tell the traffic when to stop and go," then sells the invention to General Electric. While the arc of the story is adequate, climaxing with the accident, the author’s research is open to questioning: Most sources claim that Morgan’s traffic signal, while certainly a significant contribution to the history of signal lights, was not the first. Many sources also claim that the sale of his invention to GE is a myth. The lack of citation–sources, bibliography, suggested further reading–renders the author’s assertions controvertible. The shiny, attractive cover and well-designed–if otherwise mundane–artwork fades under the author’s unsubstantiated and likely incorrect historical reporting.

Even the youngest readers deserve better documented and less simplified nonfiction. Look elsewhere.