Lift, Mix, Fling!: Machines Can Do Anything – A Rhyming STEM Picture Book About Simple Machines for Kids (Ages 4-8)

How do you make work easier? With machines, of course! Acclaimed author Lola M. Schaefer and award-winning illustrator James Yang explore various types of machines and their numerous, complex functions. A fun and interactive STEM-themed picture book for fans of David Macaulay and Byron Barton, and anyone curious about how things work and what makes things go.

Machines are everywhere. They are the spoons that scoop and the trucks that dump. They are pulleys and ramps and even a giant rocket ship flying through outer space. How many simple and compound machines can you find?

Lift, Mix, Fling! introduces readers to the six different simple machines: the screw, the lever, the wedge, the pulley, the inclined plane, and the wheel and axle. Lola M. Schaefer’s lively, rhyming text and James Yang’s bold and inventive illustrations make this STEM topic easy to understand and fun to explore. Lift, Mix, Fling! illustrates how machines function and why they are important—a necessary building block in science. A fun and educational choice for curious children, for classrooms, and for family story times.

Includes backmatter about simple and compound machines. 

Lola M. Schaefer is an educator, writer, and gardener, and the author of many acclaimed books for children about math, art, science, technology, animals, and nature. She uses shovels, hoes, rakes, and scissors when she works in her garden. Lola M. Schaefer grew up in Indiana, and now lives in northern Georgia.

James Yang is an award-winning artist and designer, and the author of Stop! Bot!, the winner of the 2020 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished American book for beginning readers. He uses pencil sharpeners, pens, and a computer—which is an electronic machine—in his studio. James Yang grew up in Oklahoma, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.