What Do Machines Do All Day?

by Jo Nelson, Aleksandar Savić (Illustrations)

What do machines do all day? Find out in this fully illustrated book that features more than 100 machines and things that go. Little ones can explore fourteen scenes set in diverse places – including the farm, the city, the construction site, the space centre and the airport – then turn the page to find out what each machine is called, and what it is used for. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Jo Nelson is a freelance writer who specialises in making educational books intriguing and exciting. She studied Modern & Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and has worked as an editor and writer for over 15 years.

Reviews

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This colourful book introduces little ones to more than one hundred machines used in 14 different locations such as the farm, the building site, the film set, the train station and many others.
For every location, first, you see a rather busy introductory page, then, you turn a page and read the descriptions of 8 different machines/ devices e.g. the farm: a combine harvester, a tractor, a mower, a baler, a plough, a seed drill, a milking machine and a sheep shearer.
Great for vocabulary building and spatial memory. After you have read a description, you can go back and try to spot the machine in the big picture.


The book makes you realize we are surrounded by a vast number of machines we couldn’t do without, although sometimes we don’t even know their names.
It would make a great present for a curious little reader who loves mechanics and technology.
Thank you to NetGalley and Wide Eyed editions for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure the artwork was for me, for personal preference I didn’t like this one much. I also prefer book presenting machine or animal, kind of «documentary» book, to have illustrations instead of drawing, maybe it’s just me! Anyway I didn’t like it much but it did a good job presenting tons of machines from various place, from home, to office passing through farm and construction site, that was well achieved!

[KayKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What Do Machines Do All Day" is a wonderful and enjoyable read. Children can easily apply the information to their daily lives. The book provides 14 common scenarios that machines/gadgets are widely used. Each scenario has their own spread of beautiful illustration then comes with explanations of individual machines/gadgets used in each situation. The text is short and easy enough for precocious young readers to read on their own with minimum adult assistance. My 5yo can read it on his own with little help from me. Even beginning readers could have a blast reading it with adults since the short text is perfect for their short attention span. The best about the book is that it could be used as a look-and-find kind of activity book if children want to take a break from reading.

The publisher never ceased to publish quality children non fiction with beautiful graphics. The illustration are realistically rendered not only to provide the aesthetic pleasure for readers but can as well educate the young minds. My son has endless hours of joy flipping through the pages. "What Do Machines Do All Day" is a perfect gift for young and curious learners.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't bad, but I can see a different book being a bit better at doing what it does. It wants to take us to fourteen different environments where we might find machines, show us them and explain (very) briefly what they do. That's fine, but I did find niggles. Smallest ones first, I know a toilet has mechanical parts, but is it truly a machine? Secondly, did we need a lift as a part of an office? Thirdly, is the balance as good as it should be, when we get a tractor on a farm but a laparoscope at the vet's? But the biggest problem for me, however, was not in the writing but the design, which was so stylised it managed to fail to achieve the intended at times. I still have no idea what a car factory's stamping machine might look like, for example. I have seen some wonderful lift-the-flap books from this publisher over the years, finally, and I think that might have been a better format as opposed to flipping back and forth from seeing the machines in use to learning their job. This isn't heinously bad, but I don't think it's a great success.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley.
This book includes fourteen different settings where machines are used. Eight different machines used in each setting are identified. Simple explanations share what each does to work together or alone in places such as farms, homes and film sets. Once the reader has learned about the machines - both large and small, he/she can go back to the full page illustration and see how the machines work in that setting.
Full color highly detailed illustrations bring each setting to life.
Young readers will enjoy seeing the action on each page and learning about how machines work together and separately in many areas.
This would be a terrific read together book for families. It combines action and facts to help readers grow.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nicely designed and interesting book, but I felt the artwork made things a bit difficult to see at times. It was nice, but I don't think it quite works for this book, especially for younger children, as it makes the machines too "stylized" and not realistic enough.
It's good for reminding us of some machines we don't really think about.

Disclaimer - I received a free digital copy of this book courtesy of Wide Eyed Editions and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be a great addition to any curious elementary student's library. I love the wide variety of machines explained and illustrated throughout this book.

[The Endless Unread · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colourful and interesting book that teaches you about machines and what they do. Very well laid out and simply explained for younger people.

[RedRobinXXX · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reviewing this book for Jo nelson, Wide Eyed Editions and NetGalley who gave me a copy of their book for an honest review
A great book for those youngsters with a remote interest in machines - it gives you a scene and shows all the machinery used there and how they work together

[Chanel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't so impressed with this book, maybe I was expecting more images. But for a kid to know what the machines do all day is fun.