How Your Day Works

Why does toast turn brown? Where does the flush go? Why do farts smell? Why does the Moon follow you?

Curious kids ask why all day long. How Your Day Works answers about 150 of those everyday questions in the order they come up, following Juno and Peek the chameleon through one ordinary day, from the toaster at 7:00 a.m. to the Moon at 8:30 p.m.

Every part of the day hides its secrets in a different way. At breakfast they are too small to see. In the bathroom they are behind the walls. The storm is too big, the playground's pushes and pulls are invisible, lunch goes on a trip inside you, the garden is too slow to watch, the city after dark is too fast, and the stars are too far. Eight stops, eight ways things hide, and one question to carry into real life: where is the secret hiding?

Predict first. Each stop opens on a big, busy scene with its questions, and Peek hiding somewhere in the picture.

Turn the page for Peek's-eye view. The same place appears again through a zoom lens, a cutaway, an x-ray or a telescope, with a short answer to every question.

Trace it. Deep-dive pages turn each answer into a numbered route to follow with a finger, from cause to effect.

Look again. Myths put to the test, gross-but-true facts, what-if pages, questions scientists are still working on, and a safe try-it activity at every stop, like making yeast blow up a balloon or growing a bean in a bag.

Made for ages 7 to 10: fun to share with a 7-year-old and easy for 8- to 10-year-olds to read alone. Short answers, clear labels, full color throughout, plus a Question Finder, a Word Finder and an answers page at the back. The science is simplified but never untrue.

The final pages hand the day back to your child, with a checklist for spotting all eight kinds of secret tomorrow. A gift for the kid who asks why about everything, and Book 1 of the Whynarium, a place for asking why.