Title: A Compendium of Curious Contraptions: A Guessing Game about History's Most Unusual Artifacts (Hardback or Cased Book)
Publisher: Neon Squid 9/30/2025
Publication Date: 2025
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1684494532
ISBN 13: 9781684494538
Binding: Hardback or Cased Book
Illustrator: Zamudio, Paula
Condition: New
Weight: 1.48 pounds
Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!

Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. Readers can take a guess before unfolding a giant flap to reveal the answer. Without giving too much away, the book contains Inuit snow goggles, designed to protect eyes from the blinding glare of the ice, an ancient Chinese earthquake detector featuring several metal frogs, and err.. the Royal fistula―an item used to perform delicate surgery on the rear end of King Louis XIV of France.

Kids will delight in trying to work out the purpose of the beautiful objects, brought to life by Mexican illustrator Paula Zamudio, and will learn a lot about the cultures that created them – from ancient Rome to Polynesia, and Mesopotamia to Viking Scandinavia.

About the Authors

Anna Goldfield is a podcaster, science writer, illustrator, archaeologist, and creator of all sorts of content to introduce people to the study of the world around us and its past. Anna works on the kids’ science podcast Brains On! and presents the popular archaeology podcast The Dirt.

Neon Squid creates beautiful nonfiction books for inquisitive kids (and kids at heart). We believe the most amazing stories are real ones, so our books are for children who want to decipher ancient scrolls, orbit distant stars, and dive into the deepest oceans. Our books are a labor of love―written by experts, illustrated by the best artists around, and produced using the finest materials, including sustainably sourced paper. We hope that by reading them kids are encouraged to further explore the world around them.

Paula Zamudio is an illustrator born and raised in the south of Mexico. She’s loved drawing from the moment she first held a pencil, and as a child was inspired by fantasy and adventure picture books as well as anime. Paula loves making art with special care for texture, color and gesture, and she is inspired by nature, fashion from different eras, fantasy, antiques, and her two cats.

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