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Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless!
Part comic strip and part science experiment, Howtoons shows children how to find imaginative new uses for common household items like soda bottles, duct tape, mop buckets, and more-to teach kids the "Tools of Mass Construction"
Howtoons are cartoons that teach 8- to 15-year-old readers "how to" build, create, and explore things. Combining a fun, full-color cartoon format and real life science and engineering principles, Howtoons are designed to encourage kids to become active participants in the world around them.
Readers meet Tucker and Celine, a lovable brother and sister pair. Sick of watching TV and playing video games, Tucker and Celine decide to conquer every kid's nightmare: the dreaded summer o' boredom. Armed with countless ideas for fun projects, they set out to reclaim the sheer joy of playing. Fifteen practical, build-it-yourself projects are weaved into the Tucker and Celine storyline. With the narrators' help and clear step-by-step instructions, young readers will learn how to set up a workshop, create a marshmallow shooting gun, make ice cream without a freezer, play songs on a turkey baster flute, explore a homemade terrarium, launch a pressure-powered rocket, and more
Utilizing inexpensive, kid-friendly materials, Howtoons will prove that the world at large is infinitely more exciting than anything happening on the TV or computer screen. Plus, each project will provide readers with practical skills and problem solving know-how that they can use in their everyday lives. These funny, interactive Howtoons are sure to inspire independence and creative savvy in young people everywhere.
Howtoons are cartoons that teach 8- to 15-year-old readers "how to" build, create, and explore things. Combining a fun, full-color cartoon format and real life science and engineering principles, Howtoons are designed to encourage kids to become active participants in the world around them.
Readers meet Tucker and Celine, a lovable brother and sister pair. Sick of watching TV and playing video games, Tucker and Celine decide to conquer every kid's nightmare: the dreaded summer o' boredom. Armed with countless ideas for fun projects, they set out to reclaim the sheer joy of playing. Fifteen practical, build-it-yourself projects are weaved into the Tucker and Celine storyline. With the narrators' help and clear step-by-step instructions, young readers will learn how to set up a workshop, create a marshmallow shooting gun, make ice cream without a freezer, play songs on a turkey baster flute, explore a homemade terrarium, launch a pressure-powered rocket, and more
Utilizing inexpensive, kid-friendly materials, Howtoons will prove that the world at large is infinitely more exciting than anything happening on the TV or computer screen. Plus, each project will provide readers with practical skills and problem solving know-how that they can use in their everyday lives. These funny, interactive Howtoons are sure to inspire independence and creative savvy in young people everywhere.
112 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 2007
58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 19 reviews
November 8, 2007
Siblings Tuck and Celine may not always agree, but there's certainly one thing they have in common; the desire to invent miraculous creations out of simple objects. So, through their eyes, fifteen different chapters show child readers how to prepare a workshop for their creations, use a variety of different tools, and make all kinds of cool things. One minute Tuck and Celine are making ice cream without an ice cream maker, and the next they're whipping up handmade underwater scopes. As the book progresses these inventions grow increasingly complex, though perhaps not impossible. Using a graphic format, authors Saul Griffith and Joost Bonsen and illustrator Nick Dragotta know how to lure in interested child readers, while also encouraging a love of science, invention, and sheer mental agility. If you every wanted to convince your kids of the importance of counting in binary or learning knot tying, no book has made such skills quite as compelling in recent memory.
Remember the popularity of The Dangerous Book for Boys? Do you even remember why that book made as much money as it did? It wasn't the packaging or even, necessarily, the premise. Rather, it was the idea behind the purchase of this book. Somehow, by giving this book to our children, we could rescue them from this crazy mixed-up world of iPods and GameBoys and handheld devices. The book promised, however obliquely, that it could instill in your children a sense of wonder with the world about them. They'd start doing good old-fashioned things like building tree houses or skipping stones. "Howtoons" makes a similar promise, but it has a distinct advantage over "The Dangerous Book for Boys" (or its subsequent sequel, The Daring Book for Girls). For one thing, the primary purchasers may still be adults, but the format is distinctly kid-friendly. And just look at what the book is promising you! It shows you how to create guns that shoot marshmallows or create goggles out of pop bottles. It means instant muscles or fart mechanisms via a clever combination of washers and rubber bands. Plus the graphic novel format drills home the fact that even with its complex images and difficult to manage tools, kids and teens are going to be drawn to this book. Sometimes packaging is key.
Not that every cool project in this book is going to be easily accomplished by every kid that picks it up. Simple ideas, like making a muscled body double out of duct tape, are self-explanatory. The marshmallow shooter and the pressure-powered rocket, however, are almost frighteningly complex. I can already see some technically inept parents cringing as their young charges start pleading for PVC pipe and 3/4" O-Rings. In a way, the ideas in "Howtoons" grow increasingly complex as the book continues. The result is that the final creation utilizes every material and idea that popped up earlier in the book. Which, you have to admit, was pretty clever on the authors' part. Still, you get a clear sense as you read as to why the book begins with the sentence, "Please Note: The authors and publisher recommend ADULT SUPERVISION on all projects!" The kids in this book may be doing everything on their own, but few kids will be equally adept.
I'm always looking for great non-fiction to promote in my library system. A non-fiction book that combines the vibrant colors and visual medium of the comic book genre with good old-fashioned how-to ideas is probably going to do very well for itself on the open market. Invention may be something attributable to the Edisons of old, but Griffith, Bonsen, and Dragotta are making it a new and vibrant option for the video-jaded youths of today. Fine, fabulous stuff.
Remember the popularity of The Dangerous Book for Boys? Do you even remember why that book made as much money as it did? It wasn't the packaging or even, necessarily, the premise. Rather, it was the idea behind the purchase of this book. Somehow, by giving this book to our children, we could rescue them from this crazy mixed-up world of iPods and GameBoys and handheld devices. The book promised, however obliquely, that it could instill in your children a sense of wonder with the world about them. They'd start doing good old-fashioned things like building tree houses or skipping stones. "Howtoons" makes a similar promise, but it has a distinct advantage over "The Dangerous Book for Boys" (or its subsequent sequel, The Daring Book for Girls). For one thing, the primary purchasers may still be adults, but the format is distinctly kid-friendly. And just look at what the book is promising you! It shows you how to create guns that shoot marshmallows or create goggles out of pop bottles. It means instant muscles or fart mechanisms via a clever combination of washers and rubber bands. Plus the graphic novel format drills home the fact that even with its complex images and difficult to manage tools, kids and teens are going to be drawn to this book. Sometimes packaging is key.
Not that every cool project in this book is going to be easily accomplished by every kid that picks it up. Simple ideas, like making a muscled body double out of duct tape, are self-explanatory. The marshmallow shooter and the pressure-powered rocket, however, are almost frighteningly complex. I can already see some technically inept parents cringing as their young charges start pleading for PVC pipe and 3/4" O-Rings. In a way, the ideas in "Howtoons" grow increasingly complex as the book continues. The result is that the final creation utilizes every material and idea that popped up earlier in the book. Which, you have to admit, was pretty clever on the authors' part. Still, you get a clear sense as you read as to why the book begins with the sentence, "Please Note: The authors and publisher recommend ADULT SUPERVISION on all projects!" The kids in this book may be doing everything on their own, but few kids will be equally adept.
I'm always looking for great non-fiction to promote in my library system. A non-fiction book that combines the vibrant colors and visual medium of the comic book genre with good old-fashioned how-to ideas is probably going to do very well for itself on the open market. Invention may be something attributable to the Edisons of old, but Griffith, Bonsen, and Dragotta are making it a new and vibrant option for the video-jaded youths of today. Fine, fabulous stuff.
May 31, 2013
My husband bought this for our children. They have done a number of the projects by now and each have been successful. They particularly liked the marshmallow guns, which they declared dart guns for administering medications to wild animals instead of deadly projectiles. (I was so proud.) At 5 & 3 they aren't able to do any of the projects without adult assistance. Come on they can't even read the directions yet. But they follow the pictures and have been fully invested and interested in the outcome. All in all, I'd deem this a raving success. They look forward to picking out their next challenge and I enjoy seeing them so excited about something that isn't on a TV/computer screen.
April 27, 2008
I know, from two years of trying to do it with my students for their science fair projects, that making the little battery motor in this book is DAMN HARD. We got it to work this year, but I think potential supervisors of the projects in this book ought to know: we're not talking about EASY engineering projects. That marshmallow gun looks even harder than the motor. Probably better for parent:kid ratios, than teacher:students, but even if we don't make any of the cool stuff at school, it's still a cool book for reading at school. For the page on how to count in binary, if nothing else.
August 13, 2008
Really a great comic inspired book for kids. A bother and sister are bored over summer break and come up with all kinds of clever and fun things to try and do. This book is a lot of fun for the over 7 set, the writing is great and the pictures and storyline are a lot of fun.
The only reason this didn't get 5 stars from me is that many of the experiments in the book aren't something that most kids can do on their own, so parents would need to get involved.
The only reason this didn't get 5 stars from me is that many of the experiments in the book aren't something that most kids can do on their own, so parents would need to get involved.
January 28, 2008
My brother read it.
My brother:IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!
My brother:IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!
July 3, 2019
A nice how to guide to fun science related projects for young adults. It makes the thought of inventing something yourself sound like fun. Precise instructions plus a cartoon to show how it's used. Great, fun read even if you don't do any of the projects. A brother and sister team up or compete to put together easy to elaborate projects. Rockets, a marshmallow shooter, making ice cream, tying knots to make a swing....there's a ton of cool information presented in a fun way.
August 15, 2016
Interesting... people who don't like comic books should skip this one. But if you're a lover of graphic novels/comics, you won't be disappointed. The book centers around two kids who are always fighting until their mom says, "can't you make something other than trouble?" So their quest to make things begins. The book teaches the reader how to do/make certain things by way of comic panels: ice cream, terrarium, marshmallow shooter, masks, an underwater scope, rope swing, an instrument, a rocket launcher... the list goes on. Also contains a glossary in the back.
January 7, 2010
Buy it for the marshmallow gun section. Keep it for the pop bottle rockets.
A great book with projects that WORK; it will entice you to get off the couch and into your nearest hardware store to build enviable "toys" for kids of all ages. And when I say "all ages", that includes 5 year olds to 65 year olds!
A great book with projects that WORK; it will entice you to get off the couch and into your nearest hardware store to build enviable "toys" for kids of all ages. And when I say "all ages", that includes 5 year olds to 65 year olds!
December 5, 2013
Brother and sister, Tucker and Celine, are tired of the boring TV and video games. In order to the time during their summer, they do science projects using household items for their experiments. This story is fun for readers to follow along with or duplicate the siblings' adventures. Never, ever say you have run out of things to do during another summer break after you read this graphic novel.
February 12, 2008
the best part of this book is learning how to make a monkey fist knot. how cool is that? and the rest is awesome, too. its as perfect for adults as it is foor kids, and full of things to do that are light years away from toilet-paper-roll crafts.
May 23, 2008
This is is a fun comic inspired book for student looking for fun experiments and or creations with a low budget and easy to find material. The experiment are fun and creative and will make you enjoy science even more!
January 3, 2010
I learned many really fun experiments, scientific terms, and I enjoyed the comics. I really liked the idea of the "tool bucket" I think I might make one since I have a whole bunch of tools. They have a website, here it is http://www.howtoons.com/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2013
Great book for kids that are makers. Bought the book after seeing him speak. A MacArthur Genius Grant winner, MIT PhD, inventor, & dad, he has a lot of great insights on how to inspire passion & wonder in kids.
January 22, 2008
Get this book and cause trouble!
If you have a niece, nephew, cousin, or just want to be a kid, get this book. Man this has some really fun projects in it.
If you have a niece, nephew, cousin, or just want to be a kid, get this book. Man this has some really fun projects in it.
February 4, 2008
This book is both fun and educational. I really enjoyed it especially the marshmallow shooter.
Hannah
Hannah
August 29, 2009
We built the swing and are trying to make others. Wonderful! the swing is still standing and is just marvelous. I wish there were more Highly recomended
February 23, 2010
Written in comic book format, this book is a wonderful science book with experiments that kids can do themselves! Funny and informative.
January 13, 2016
Actually read "Trouble Makers: A Howtooons Adventure" but very similar to this book. (Can't find mine on GoodReads)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 19 reviews