Karl,

New book for kids, Lauren Ipsum, under development here

http://carlos.bueno.org/

Seems interesting and I quite enjoyed reading the sample chapter.

There is another sample at

http://carlos.bueno.org/2011/01/tortoise.html

The Tortoise would only be right if you could have a string with half an atom, which isn't the case :-)

I wonder about all the background information woven into a story that is meant to be a first introduction to the subject. The best children's stories have stuff that the adults can appreciate but the intended audience doesn't get, but this is on a completely different scale. Take a look at a similar (very short) story I wrote for a very specific audience and how much it ruined when you need the explanations at the end (not part of the original):

http://www.merlintec.com/lsi/stories/deadlocks.html

-- Jecel