Playtime Engineering

Big Science for Tiny Tots

by Jill Esbaum, WonderLab Group

Grab a play mat, blocks, and your favorite baby engineer. It’s time to build something—and see science at work!

Oh, my. You’ve gathered lots of materials.
What will you build?

With blocks at the ready, watch as your baby uses their hands to bear weight and the couch for support while experimenting with setting up a sturdy base, stacking a tower, spanning a space with an arch—and applying force, of course. Bash! Smash! Crash! Babies and toddlers are naturally curious explorers—now help them discover that science is fun! In this bright, graphic board book, photos of busy little ones offset a lively running dialogue sprinkled with factual asides that define basic engineering terms.

Genres: Science, Stem, Picture Books, Nonfiction

24 pages, Board Book

Published September 12, 2023

About the author

Jill Esbaum is a full-time writer and author of I am Cow, Hear Me Moo!, I Hatched!, Stanza, and Tom’s Tweet, among many others. She lives on a farm with her husband and children in Dixon, IA.

Reviews

[A Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the concept of this book and I love the photos of real children playing. Nearly every page has a vocabulary word in the corner, such as hypothesis, bearing, bracket, and force. Unfortunately, nearly every page also has three or four font sizes. I thought at first that the biggest text was the abridged version for younger readers, which could be helpful, but the book does not make sense when read that way. I found so many font sizes distracting and there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary text. For example, one page reads, "Oh, my. You've gathered lots of materials. What will you build? Hmm Building would be easier if you sat on your bum." The vocabulary word for that page is "materials" and then the following page says, "Ooh, you're getting good at sitting, baby. But ... balancing is still a little tricky. The sides of the couch will help. The back and armrest of the couch are acting as a bracket." Then bracket is defined in the corner. A few pages later, the only words on the page are, "Stack a block. Chew a block. Stack a block. Chew a block." That page could've been left out entirely.

[Lisa Van Gemert | Gifted Guru · Rating 5 out of 5]

The science is high enough for the adults, but fun enough for babies. I love the real photos. It's a great addition to a board book library! One of two published by MIT (currently - I'm guessing they'll add to it).

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this might be the best of the batch!