Tag inventions

Juniper Mae: Knight of Tykotech City

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Juniper Mae: Knight of Tykotech City
Sarah Soh
Flying Eye Books

Juniper Mae, a young inventor, lives in Tykotech City, a wonderful place on account of its residents having their energy sourced from within by The Core, so that they have no need to venture into the deep dangerous forest surrounding the city to obtain resources. Now though unexplained problems with The Core have started causing power cuts.

One night when out testing her latest invention, the Juni Jet, (a high velocity jetpack with miniaturised hyperdrive), The Core’s power cuts out causing Juniper to crash land in the forest. Hearing a sound, she fears it heralds the approach of one of the terrible beasts the city folk talk of, but instead what appears is a tiny creature – a tama-tama – that looks rather endearing.
The creature introduces himself as Albie, offers his help to guide her home and accompanies Juniper in the hope that she’ll show him the city.

First though, Albie shows her his own village where she notices some unusual plant lights she’s told are sourced from kabbage seeds, and then in his hut, the artefact he’d mentioned that could help her. He also tells Juniper that this object had once belonged to the Guardian Knights, the ancient protectors of both humans and tama-tamas, thus giving both groups a shared antiquity. Albie gives his new friend both the ancient sword and an ancient map and they both go back to Juniper’s home.

Juniper investigates how the kabbage seeds work but just as she’s done so the city is invaded by metal monsters. Are they responsible for the power losses? Juniper is a determined character and with Albie’s assistance, together with the artefact and the newly discovered power source, she sets about saving the city and the forest. Can the spirit of those Guardian Knights supercharge her confidence.

Sarah Soh’s graphic style presentation of Juniper’s world is immediately immersive with its wealth of glowing images and lots of mechanical detail; there’s a gripping fast-paced plot that includes lots of dialogue and leaves readers satisfied with the resolution of one mystery but eager to meet Juniper and Albie again in the two further tales. I love the mix of technology and nature and that the main protagonist is passionate about STEM subjects.

Timeline: Science & Technology

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Timeline: Science & Technology
Peter Goes
Gecko Press

If you’re looking for a book that presents the scientific accomplishments of humankind, from Paleolithic times to the present day, then this large format offering should fit the bill. Concisely written, it’s absolutely packed with exciting information starting right back in the Stone Ages when mankind learned how to make fire, moving on to the Copper or Chalcolithic Age (copper being the first metal humans made use of) when people were starting to develop farming techniques such as crop-growing, and when towns began.

Then come the first civilisations and Peter Goes shows the contribution of each to the evolution of technology and science. There’s Mesopotamia with a medical manual from ancient Babylon,

the Americas, the Indus Valley civilisation or Harrapan Culture – when there were some large cities with brick houses and sophisticated sanitation and drainage systems. (I was pleased to see this having once visited and written about, the Lothal site in India’s Gujarat state.)

There’s a look at Ancient Egypt, the first Chinese, Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires with both general information and some closer detail about each era.

By now some readers might be thinking, surely technology is about computers, mobile phones and satellites? But the roots of all these technological wonders lies way back in the Stone Age.

Each double spread displays an era, century or, once we get to the 20th/21st centuries, a decade,

ending up with a look at the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

With each spread having a different colour background, Peter Goes’ graphic art is alluring and playfully immersive, making it overall more of a visual history presentation. It’s good to see a fair number of women included such as German astronomer Maria Margaretha Kirch (18th C), mathematician and first computer programmer Ada Lovelace (early 19th C), Rachel Carson, Rosalind Franklin (1950s) and Stephanie Kwolek (1960s). (Wish there’d been an index.)

Recommended for home and school use. Browse for hours: You’re sure to learn something wherever, whenever you stop.

The Princess and the Christmas Rescue

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The Princess and the Christmas Rescue
Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton
Nosy Crow
‘On top of the world where the icy winds blow,
A beautiful palace grows out of the snow.’
This palace is home to Princess Eliza, a bright child with a passion for making things of a technological nature, though not for making friends, largely because she never sets foot outside the palace walls.
One day as she stands gazing out across the valley after abortive friend-making efforts within, she sees some smoke and decides to follow it and discover its source. Off she goes into the forest and is soon lost. What should loom up out of the snowy mist but a friendly reindeer who offers to take her to a place of safety.

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This turns out to be Santa’s Workshop where she discovers that the elves are in desperate need of some assistance and before long Eliza has set herself to work designing and creating some new machines.

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Can the problem-solving princess and her inventions speed things up sufficiently; and will she succeed in her friend-finding quest?
Just the thing for sharing at the start of the build-up to Christmas: this rhyming tale reads aloud beautifully. Children will doubtless enjoy the fact that Eliza’s kindness and problem-solving skills are both rewarding and rewarded.

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Sarah Warburton’s North Pole scenes are full of humour, wonderful details and seasonal warmth; and those elves with their crazy headgear are terrific fun.

Up, Up and Away

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Up, Up and Away
Tom McLaughlin
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
I have a particular soft spot for small boys with large imaginations so I instantly fell for Orson, a boy who loves to make things. On the particular day we meet him, young Orson has his head in a book, and his heart and mind on an extraordinary idea …

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Now unlike many of the inventive ilk, Orson is an organised little chap and so in a short time he’s busy gathering all the vital ingredients for his venture – a cup of rocks, a splosh of water, some chunks of metal and a large amount of nothingness (lots of empty space is required on a planet after all). Naturally, he’s decided to employ the big bang method and has managed to get his hands on just what he needs for the purpose …

 

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And before long BOOM! There in his bedroom, right before his, and our, eyes, is a small swirling spherical object. It’s a case of love at first sight so far as Orson is concerned, but concerned he is ,for the planet he’s brought into being has a decidedly unhappy look about it. What’s a lad to do with a sad planet?
Orson resolves to cheer it up … not very successfully …

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Off he goes to his favourite place to do a spot of research and having genned up on the subject through the night, he proceeds to carry out his plan of inducing planet happiness. He feeds it, dusts its craters, tidies its ocean and voila! By the following morning there’s a decided improvement and significant increase in size … with veritable moons even.
Unsurprisingly, care equals happiness where the planet is concerned but most of us know, though perhaps Orson had yet to learn, that happiness has a tendency to attract … Before long, it’s not ‘ just a few teaspoons and the odd unicycle’ but …

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And come bedtime both boy and big bang ball are equally down at heart.
Next morning, (no doubt Orson’s unconscious mind was in over-drive all night), the boy has come to a decision: braveness is called for – and a release …

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That however, is not entirely the end of the story …
Oh the wit, oh, the wisdom, oh the beauty of Tom McLaughlin’s whole phenomenal enterprise.

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Two Wacky Tales

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Professor McQuark and the Oojamaflip
Lou Treleaven and Julia Patton
Maverick Arts Publishing
When Professor McQuark invents a wonderful new gadget, so weird and wacky is it, that she names it Oojamaflip. Then off she dashes to her workshop – aka the shed – and sets to work bringing that design in her head to finished product.

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What is the next thing to do once the Oojamflip is finished? Take it to be displayed at the Science Fair of course, and so with headlights polished, the next stop is the town hall. There is just one snag however and it concerns the relative size of the building’s doors and that of the Oojamaflip;

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so the prof. is forced to leave her machine outside.
Inside there are all manner of wacky inventions: a square balloon maker, a zip up door, an infinitely re-sizeable alien suit and a self-playing flute to name a few and they’re all vying for the judges’ attention to win that first prize. And here comes an announcement …

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Or maybe not – all the visitors are suddenly dashing outside leaving the judges startled and puzzled and there’s only one thing they can do; head outside too and discover what all the fuss is about …

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Seems they’re all pretty impressed with this extra mural exhibit but there’s one thing still puzzling them: “what does this Ooja-thing actually do?” The clue is in the title – I’ll say no more.
Great to see a female in the role of scientist cum inventor: the aptly named Professor McQuark should be an inspiration to all young inventors. Debut author Lou Treleaven’s sparky rhyming story is wackily illustrated by Julia Patton, whose scenes are full of zany details to pore over, and possibly provide some ideas to child inventors.

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Giant Jelly Jaws and the Pirates
Helen Baugh and Ben Mantle
Harper Collins Children’s Books
Unlike his fellow crew members, new cabin boy Jake is not brave or strong; indeed he has no head for heights, cries at the slightest hint of a scratch and at night, his hammock-mate is a teddy bear. It looks as though Captain Fish-Breath Fred has made an almighty mistake in engaging young Jake. But can the lad manage to prove his worth in the face of a rival pirate crew whose members are intent on getting their hands on the treasure map whereon X marks the spot. Seemingly not, for here’s a rather stinky situation where we see his fellow shipmates about to walk the plank…

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and the cabin boy himself cowering behind some kegs of pop.
Hold on me hearties! What is Jake up to now? Surely it’s no time to be guzzling pop, or is it? …

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If you want to know how this ripping rhyming yarn concludes, you’ll have to get your own copy of the riotous romp and read the rest yourself. It’s certainly true to say ship’s figurehead Giant Jelly Jaws has found his match when it comes to monstrous eruptions; and awash with detail, Ben Mantle’s riotous scenes are suitably salty and swashbuckling.

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