The New Way Things Work Hardcover – October 26, 1998

I ordered this for my very curious 6 year old son, who thinks like an engineer already, but the whole family is enjoying it. It's a quality book with great information and illustrations that's fun to flip through or use for reference every time he asks how or why something works. It's target audience is probably much older (9 to adult?), but it's a great coffee table book and reference to have around for adults. Younger children will enjoy looking at the illustrations while a parent simplifies the explanations. Every day objects are fascinating to anyone who likes to see how things work or just has a curious nature. It has inspired an interest in science and invention and we're looking forward to taking things apart so he can see how they work with the help of this book. It would be a great gift for teachers as well!

Absolutely love the illustrations and the engaging explanations ...adore the mammoth 🦣

We bought this as a gift for a nephew. We had it in our classroom, and all the kids loved it.

i enjoyed the books but was very disappointed with the packaging. i ordered 9 of these books for myself and several co-workers. when books arrived, they all came in 1 over sized boxs with out any packing. needless to say that the covers of a couple of the books were torn and some of the pages in ever book were akwardly folded or wrinkled. the content of the books is excellent, and it will help my team become more creative when making ergonomic and lean improvments but the pakaging was horrible. Very disappointed.

As described, great.

I bought this book after my little boy discovered and fell in love with a copy at preschool. He poured over the illustrations and I was amazed at how involved he got in it. He's not normally very bookish, he'd rather be out climbing trees and jumping on the trampoline but this book captures his imagination like nothing else. He will finish dinner and then go to the living room, grab this book and sit looking at the illustrations for the longest time, even though we've had the book about six months he's still totally into it. He's five now and can't read but I think he'll love it even more when he's able to read the information. My daughter for some reason isn't very interested in it but it's here if she wants it. My son will bring the book over to his dad and they will discuss the pictures and daddy with fill in the information. Such a neat book for little kids who are fascinated with how things work, and a great reference for every home!

Put these four things together--ingenuity, imagination, depictions, diagrams-- and you have a double ID toward understanding how things work. David Macaulay and Neil Ardley put together a magnificent volume for children and children at heart containing a way of understanding the laws of physics and mechanics.The first illustration even shows God busy creating the rotation of the earth. Then they go to the earth where wooly mammoths lived and pick up one to take us through the history of mechanics, machines, and the like. Dozens of movements in five sections: waves, electricity, automation, digital domain, and machines show us just how easy these things are to understand done in drawerings.Just as in child's play, there is no seeming order to the arrangement of items in the book. For example here are a few pages next to each other: vacuum cleaners, aqualungs or oxygen tanks, the toilet tank, the water meter, dishwasher, spray nozzle, fire extinguisher. Are you seeing an order? Yes, so am I.Flipping over a hundred pages, I find the jet engine, rocket engines, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, fallout, nuclear reactor. OK, a definite pattern. Another hundred pages show these topics: movie camera, movie projector, printing, paper making, printing plate, printing press, bookbinding. More discernible order and logical arrangement.One last check: scanner, bits and bytes, flash memory, magnetic storage, microchip, processor, software. We know where we are and recognize the order--a computer and its parts.This reviewer has a suggestion for the reader. Once you have this book in hand, take it home, take it out every night and read a comfortable number of pages. If you have a child, read one page, discuss it, put this one away and take out a night-night book to read. If this is just your book, read several pages. By the time you have finished the book, you will have added dozens of operating systems to the computer banks in your own brain, making your child and/or yourself an expert in the way things work.

I ordered the edition of this book as a textbook for my son who is teaching "early college Introduction to Engineering" to advanced high school students. As a Master Teacher retired, years ago I ordered the original THE WAY THINGS WORK and learned so very much about the history of engineering and the science of all motion, its principles and its advanced achievements-----covering all kinds of engineering achievements in Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, etc. I suggest that any parent who has a child who is interested in science or engineering of all kinds purchase this book and keep it on the coffee/cocktail/family room table. It is a real "motivator" for any child-----and inspires curiosity in all things made by man and all things of the universe. It is a book that all our guests of all ages, male and female, have noticed, picked up and become completely absorbed in it during their visits. It is a must for all families with children!!!!! It inspires one to learn.