Danny Dunn & the Voice from Space

Most of the people I know that are working in science and engineering developed their first interest in the areas by reading juvenile fiction such as the Tom Swift Junior books. The Danny Dunn series of books is very similar in that they describe an adolescent who is hooked on science. However, the one difference from the TS series is that Danny is not a super genius who invents incredible things in very short spans of time. Danny is bright, but also fallible, making mistakes typical of people his age. In this book, Professor Bullfinch has developed a device that will generate very low temperatures. Once Danny gives it the name Zero-maker, the name sticks and some radio astronomers in England want to use it to cool their radio telescope equipment. Their current project is to use the telescope to listen for signals coming from planets around other stars. Danny and his family travel to England to see the first set of experiments get started. After angering the principal investigator of the project, Danny and his group are banned from the research facility. However, on the last night, Danny cannot contain himself any longer and he and his friends sneak over to the observatory to peek in the window. They are spotted and allowed in the control room. Suddenly, a strange message is received and Danny helps decode it. It turns out to be a message from another planet. The principle of the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a very apt one for young people to be exposed to. If SETI does exist, it most likely will be discovered in the next ten years and the changes in the mindset of earthbound humans will be profound. This book plants the seeds in young minds that will hopefully germinate into an acceptance of what could be the greatest scientific discovery ever made.

Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space is about a boy who lives with his mother, who is working for a scientist. The scientist invents a machine that can allow scientists to listen to outterspace. They all go to England to try out the machine. Will they succeed? This is a great book for kids about science.