The informative text and detailed illustrations found in this book do a wonderful job painting pictures of Nikola Tesla's life and interests - from a young boy, to an amazing and quite successful engineer/inventor - along with bits of interesting facts surrounding his work and research. The quote at the back of the book shows that Tesla was a kind and thoughtful man who wanted to make a difference in the world, which I love.

"Money does not represent such a value that men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life." -Nikola Tesla

Thank you NetGalley and Capstone Editions for sending me a free digital copy of this book to read and review!

Loving the trend of nonfiction picture books! I really enjoyed reading this one and learning more about Nikola Tesla! What a fun way to get students interested in biographies.

Bright Dreams: The Brilliant Ideas of Nikola Tesla. By Tracy Dockray. 2020. Capstone. (ARC eBook).

Bright Dreams introduces readers to Nikola Tesla and some of his engineering feats, failures and dreams in electrical innovation. The story is engaging and has value in rereading as children get older as some aspects (especially the informative sidebars) present multiple levels of learning.

The art does a great job of establishing action, feeling, setting and place. There is a helpful glossary and timeline included in the back. Overall a great story that blends a unique biography with the science of how electricity works.

Get to know the ideas of this truly amazing inventor, through his ideas and very interesting designing capabilities.

In my childhood, the inventor we learned the most about was Edison. These days, Tesla is serving that role. Dockery shows us Tesla's brilliant mind, his determination, and his social innocence, his tendency to think only of the common good rather than his own interest. We follow him from childhood to his career in the United States. While the main text is simple and easy to understand, there are sidebars that explore some concepts in more detail and a fairly comprehensive glossary explores vocabulary terms. With utterly charming line drawings, it's compelling to read and a joy just to look at.

This is an interesting and helpful way to learn about science and a historical science figure. The book tells the story of Nikola Tesla starting from his childhood explaining his early interest in electricity. It continues to explain about his family and other elements of his life as well as how he liked engineering too. There is more to this book than Tesla’s story there is some added information about science as well. It all fits well with the Tesla story. This is a book for children, mostly older elementary age, yet Tesla had a difficult life. It discusses death and letting readers know that in advance, especially young readers, is important. The illustrations are beautiful with a variety of appealing looks. There is also an important glossary of words used in the book. Having this was something that is an essential part to help youth when reading this book and add to it in a positive way. There is also a useful timeline.

BRIGHT IDEAS: THE BRILLIANT IDEAS OF NIKOLA TESLA by Tracy Dockray
(Capstone, ISBN 978-1-684-46141-7) is described as being at a
reading level for 8- to 11-year-olds. It is possible that 8- to
11-year-olds are more knowledgeable than when I was growing up, but
words like "imbalance" and "incandescent" seem a bit too advanced,
particularly for the low end of that range. What I do find
interesting is that Dockray emphasizes how Thomas Edison and others
cheated Tesla of the rewards for his work. Most authors have
concentrated more on Tesla's achievements and glossed over this
aspect. (She does soften it a bit with the information that even
when he had money, Tesla spent it all on experiments, so he might
have ended up broke anyway.)

Okay, this is not exactly what 8- to 11-year-olds want to read, and
most of the book is more about Tesla's technical achievements. So
it is of interest to the scientifically-minded tween.

Nikola Tesla grew up in modern day Croatia. As a child, Nikola had a cat. He learned that when he pet his cat, sometimes he would get shocked. This spurred a lifelong interest in electricity and engineering.

Throughout his life, Nikola suffered through many hardships. These included the death of his older brother when they were children, being tricked and lied to by Thomas Edison, an inability to socialize well, difficulty finding steady work, and trouble keeping his business afloat. If your child is sensitive about death, you may want to skip this book. It includes an illustration of the family at the funeral.

Tesla’s most important inventions included AC electrical current, alternator, x-rays, remote controlled vehicles and the Tesla electric car motor.

The illustrations are eye catching. It seemed several artistic styles were used. I’d say this book is best suited for older elementary grades. There are a lot of topics that could be discussed with students such as lying, stealing, perseverance, rejection, autism, experimenting, testing theories, etc.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Another fantabulous non-fiction book about a famous man, Nikola Tesla!

Nikola Tesla was always brought up in my physics classes but never discussed. We basically knew he did some physics and he did some cool things, but that was it. Even seeing non-fiction content in a picture book like this is delightful! I wish I would have had books like this back during my childhood years. Lucky for me, NetGalley has lots of fun children's books for me to get all nostalgic with and share with the world!

This book is all about science and the things Nikola Tesla discovered or played around with. Static from touching a cat was one interesting discovery, which just made me chuckle. Of course cats helped with science, it only makes sense! This distracted dreamer was always crafting up ideas, and eventually used his intelligence in incredible ways.

The illustrations are super cool and stand out. I really enjoyed them and want to see more fun books include ones like these!

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone Editions for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I'm definitely not one of these people who thinks Nikola Tesla was a god and worships him, nor do I buy into the inane conspiracy theories that have grown up around him, but I do admire his brilliance, and I have to say that this well-illustrated and sweetly-told story about his life is a great way to introduce children to an important inventor.

It begins with his interesting childhood (it starts at birth! Where else would a biography start?!), and covers his youth and his travels, and follows him to the USA where he really became a name to conjure with. It pulls no punches, either, not shying away from the sad parts of his life and the times where he was exploited by unscrupulous men. The thing was that he was so good at inventing things that he nearly always bounced back.

I enjoyed reading this and the only issue I had with it was the question of his digging ditches. Yes, it's true that for $2 a day he was forced to do this, which he accepted stoically until he could get back on his feet again, but whether those ditches were for Edison's cables or some other purpose is the issue I think it's folklore rather than authenticity which poetically has him do this for Edison's cables. Maybe it was, but I'm not convinced it was specifically for that. There were lots of other reasons for digging ditches back then.

But this is a minor thing that people can disagree about, and it takes nothing away from he overall power and charm of a story that I enjoyed and which I commend as a worthy read for young children.

When I read that story about how Tesla's cat helped spark his interest in electricity, I knew his story would make a great picture book biography. This one covers much of his life, from childhood inspiration to working with Edison and eventually seeing his inventions light up the world. Detailed sidebars explain the mechanics of direct current versus alternating current, different branches of engineering, etc. That's a lot for young readers to digest, so I think the sidebars are helpful, but I wonder if focusing more on a narrower timeframe might have helped simplify the narrative. We read a lot about Edison, so I'm glad to see Tesla's inventions also getting their time in the spotlight.

(I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

When I was a kid growing up we didn't really talk about Nikola Tesla. I'm not really sure why and honestly didn't find out until I was an adult about how much he had contributed to the discovery and use of electricity. This book opens up that lesser known bit of history so that today's kids can know more about the true story. I found it really interesting and think it will appeal to lower elementary kids who are interested in science.

Thank you to the publisher for fulfilling my review request via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Little known facts are the basis for this interesting book about one of my heroes, Nikola Tesla. It is clear Tracy Dockray has been researching this incredible scientist's work for many years. The illustrations are inviting with the use of light background tones so so the drawings stand out. I will definitely be using this biography to teach perseverance and promoting your idea to as many audiences as possible. Thank goodness for social media. Just imagine what Mr. Tesla would be able to do with it!

A great overview of Nikola Tesla's life. I was inspired by the way he continued to persist with his inventions despite continual setbacks. Includes informative sidebars and back matter.

This is a well written biography for children and adults alike. Loved the illustrations!

Thanks Capstone Editions & NetGalley for the advance copy.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Really great kids book I think tesla is starting to be much better known and all of his brilliant ideas are coming to light which is amazing and this is a great book to introduce kids to some of the amazing things he discovered!

Bright Dreams: The Brilliant Ideas of Nikola Tesla by Tracy Dockray is a great book for children that introduces scientific vocabulary and principles alongside the story of Tesla's life.
This book is packed with information and will teach kids about a number of things, and the engaging way the information is woven into the narrative will make it fun for young readers. Tesla's struggles, persistence, and resiliency is inspiring and teaches a number of values such as having a good work ethic and pursuing your dreams.
The illustrations were interesting, but I would have preferred it if they were a bit more consistent.
Many thanks to Capstone Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy!

For a picture book this was a very involved biography. It's incredibly well done. It looks at the early life of Tesla up to and including his work at Westinghouse and Thomas Edison etc. I wish it had gone a bit further and given more of his later life. There is an afterward that says he died a lonely poor man which is unfortunate. But I wish they had gone a little bit more into his life after he became semi-successful.

My daughter loves Nikola Tesla so I was drawn to this book right away. Unlike other books this one focused more on his life especially his childhood which my daughter enjoyed. Some pages do have additional information about his work and inventions which didn't distract from the story. I think this is a great book for children as an introduction to Tesla or for any young fan of science.

In a delightful book, I learned about Nikola Tesla. He loved to read books. When he was older, he went to “college”to study engineering but dropped out. He wanted to do experiments and learn what he wanted to learn. Regardless of setbacks, he decided to go to the United States to meet and work with Edison. Edison agreed to hire him saying if he could do what he offered to do, he would give him a $50,000 bonus. Tesla did but Edison didn’t keep his promise. What did Tesla invent? What did Edison do to Tesla and his invention? Tesla went on to creating his own company. What happened to Tesla and his inventions after Edison?

An exquisitely written historical nonfiction book about an inventor I never heard of. He was an important inventor that deserves attention as it shows what a person that was inspired could learn and invent. I’m so glad hat I had the chance to learn about this fascinating inventor.