Review Detail

Maizie’s Amazing Machines is perfect for inspiring a sense of creativity and exploration of engineering principles. I like that it emphasizes that inventions are created because you see a problem you want to solve. This can be a small problem like not wanting to get up early in the morning so you make a self-feeding pet dispenser or a big problem like you have accidentally shot your pet up to the roof of the house. There is humor throughout the book along with a sense of possibility. The use of bright orange and green against brown makes for very striking illustrations that are often full of quirky details. Overall, this is a great book to complement STEM lessons or Art lessons where students have a maker space to make their creations from common everyday objects. The last pages illustrate six simple machines that set the basis of engineering which was a nice touch. Overall, this was an intriguing and humorous read with great engineering principles to inspire the next generation of inventors.