*Starred Review* This entry in the Great Idea series offers a fresh topic and handles it extremely well. Kids are no strangers to YouTube, but they may not know much about how it works or how it came to be. Woog’s account is interesting and informative and written in simple yet uncondescending prose that’s spot-on for the intended audience. The book begins with a brief history of video sharing on the Web and then goes on to discuss the three young men who came up with the idea for YouTube after working together at PayPal, and what getting the start-up off the ground entailed. Details of how the site works (and makes money) are explained, as are questions of copyright and censorship. The up-to-date text (at least for now) discusses a number of recent ways YouTube has changed society, including its effect on the 2008 election.
