With the advent of the World Wide Web the Internet has irrevocably passed from the purview of technology fetishists into the den of John Q. Public. It’s no surprise then that the Net is now the subject of a book called Canadian Family On-Line. Ryerson professor and computer columnist for CTV’s Canada AM John Whistance-Smith is our guide through the ever increasing maze of Web sites appropriate for “preschoolers,” “grade schoolers,” “online teens,” and “grownups on the Net.” Along with specific descriptions of favoured sites, Whistance-Smith mixes commonsense advice as to appropriate protocols for each of these groups. Not much of which is terribly surprising.

Whistance-Smith invites us to “listen as Boris Karloff unfolds this marvelous tale.” Having taken the author’s advice, I can say without fear of contradiction that a preschooler with the attention span to wait while Boris downloads onto your system (we’re talking minutes not seconds) ought to be nominated straight away for a Job Award in the category Most Patience Before Puberty. Much of the book’s tone and substance seems to suffer from a similar propensity for hyperbole and wishful thinking. At the same time, the author buffets us with happy talk concerning the Net’s potential for “fun beyond your wildest dreams.” He hints darkly that if we are slow to act in this regard, performance in the classroom may reflect a certain disadvantage.

Both may be valid points but in a field already soaked in hype this smacks of the hard sell. Still, there’s plenty of useful winnowing here; with over 200,000 Web sites to choose from, any book that narrows the field in a relatively intelligent manner is worth a look.