From the PREFACE: "A school history should set forth such facts, and in such an order, as to show the progress of civilization. The great lessons of history are found in that line of events in the past which exhibits the progress of mankind—the uplift of humanity. The record of no other country can present a more startling array of forward movements and upward tendencies than that of our own land, and in no one direction does this upward movement...

Inventions and the technologies they produced have, over the millennia, shaped our civilizations and transformed life on this planet. Invention is a world always on the move, ever reaching out, never static. Each new generation brings its own innovative thinkers whose creativity may be embedded in their DNA, or evolved through their upbringing or education. Inquiring minds are a requisite for most inventors. They are often keen observers of life and...

The result of an illegal experiment in genetic mutation, Experiment #626 is so horrifyingly hostile that it's been locked up by its inventors. It escapes to Earth where Lilo, a young Hawaiian girl, mistakes it for a strange dog, adopts it, and renames it Stitch. As Stitch becomes part of Lilo's unusual family life, Lilo's innocence and the aloha spirit of the Islands confuse and ultimately civilize the creature.