(I think this could help keep interest for those less interested in the topics. The mammoth is struggling, with various issues, and inventions help him along. The book has a narrative use of mammoths throughout. I used to review engineering topics in schools, and the steps were a little easier to tackle.įor example, the binary details. I get that is aimed at children, but I did think some of the explanations needed a bit more.

So I was quite surprised by how short some of the explanations were. If you're introducing this to someone for presumably the first time, more realistic drawings or, gosh, even a picture, would have REALLY helped get some ideas across.Īlso, 'thematically', ideas didn't go for more than two pages. But because the book kept with that theme, once it started to get into describing engines and more complicated mechanics, I didn't think the drawings really cut it. In many circumstances (zippers, inclined planes, etc.) the quasi-cartoony drawings don't matter. One primary issue was the choice of illustrations. I feel like it's a near miss for what it could have been. This was a big undertaking, and the end result is. This book has a lot of good information, and, for the most part, the explanations are decently and concisely done. Five of these titles have been made into popular PBS television programs. From the pyramids of Egypt to the skyscrapers of New York City, the human race’s great architectural and engineering accomplishments have been demystified through Macaulay's elaborate show-and-tells. Following in this tradition, Macaulay created other books-including City, Castle, Pyramid, Mill, Underground, Unbuilding, and Mosque-that have provided the explanations of the how and the why in a way that is both accessible and entertaining.

He published his first book, Cathedral, in 1973. After working as an interior designer, a junior high school teacher, and a teacher at RISD, Macaulay began to experiment with creating books. After spending his fifth year at RISD in Rome on the European Honors Program, he received a bachelor’s degree in architecture and vowed never to practice. During this time he began to draw seriously, and after graduating from high school he enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He found himself having to adjust from an idyllic English childhood to life in a fast paced American city. David Macaulay, born in 1946, was eleven when his parents moved from England to Bloomfield, New Jersey.

The way things work now book