The New Way Things Work - Hardcover

David Macaulay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395938473 ISBN 13: 9780395938478

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998

Synopsis

A Caldecott winner demystifies the machinery of the computer age with the help of a charming woolly mammoth in a completely updated version of an earlier work which details the latest innovations from cars and microchips to watches and lasers.

About this title

About the Author

David Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post–Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. In 2006, he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, given “to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.” Superb design, magnificent illustrations, and clearly presented information distinguish all of his books. David Macaulay lives with his family in Vermont.

Reviews

Macaulay's whimsical drawings reveal the mysterious workings of all kinds of contraptions--from human eardrums and electric guitars to calculators and cash. Updated with more than 80 new pages.

Grade 4 Up-The popular "guide to the workings of machines" (Houghton, 1988) has been updated to include the digital world. Of the 80 new pages advertised on the cover, 60 are found in the added section on computer technology. Very few items (parking meters and bicycle brakes) have disappeared into obsolescence, a few new ones have appeared (camcorders and airbags), and cosmetic changes are evident throughout in the enhanced color printing. The features that made the first edition a publishing phenomenon remain. Macaulay's clear and comprehensible drawings are accompanied by Neil Ardley's explanations, and in this edition the technical writer gets credit for his expertise on the title page. The bemused woolly mammoth of the original edition continues to demonstrate his prehistorically simple ideas on such concepts as heat, pressure, fire fighting, sending messages, etc., adding whimsical entries to entertain browsers. While much of the material remains unaltered, the significance of computer technology in our world makes this new edition a vital update or new purchase.
Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"A mammoth was returning from a long vacation when he happened upon a wall covered with highly sophisticated microchips and things. As a confirmed analog creature from way back, the mammoth had little time for these charmless contraptions. In fact had it not been for the banners atop the wall, each of which was emblazoned with the international symbol for fresh swamp grass, he would have never ever slowed down. But swamp grass is swamp grass no matter who's paying. With drool already collecting at the end of his trunk, he headed for the velvet curtain and entered the Digital Domain." -- Copyright (c) 1998 by David Macaulay. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395938473
• ISBN 13: 9780395938478
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400