Stuff You Need to Know!

Gr 3–5—Packed with information, this book presents diagrams of the inner workings of 27 random gadgets, tools, and concepts that are a part of our daily lives, including electricity, sewage, a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, and a 3-D printer. Each spread depicts the process—often with cutaway drawings—with lots of tiny people running around to help make it work. Four spreads feature fold-out pages that offer extra content. Numbered paragraphs provide information, and dotted lines indicate the order in which the text should be read, but the path is different on every spread and occasionally hard to follow. Some children will enjoy studying the images, but others will find the chaotic layout distracting or unclear. Some details are imprecise (such as the suggestion that gas is found only under the ocean), misleading, or confusing.