Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll!

Award-win­ning author Cather­ine Thimmesh’s irre­sistibly engag­ing text and artist Shan­da McCloskey’s ener­getic, car­toon-style art­work intro­duce read­ers to the life and cre­ative lega­cy of Rube Gold­berg, the world-famous inven­tor of crazy con­trap­tions. A rol­lick­ing edu­ca­tion­al kids’ book that is part biog­ra­phy, part inspi­ra­tion, and part physics how-to, Smash, Crash, Top­ple, Roll! posits the ulti­mate ques­tion … why do any­thing the sim­ple way? (Espe­cial­ly if, for instance, there is a cat­a­pult option?)

Because, of course, there are lots of things you can do the sim­ple way:

Set an alarm,
flip a switch,
open a door,
toast some bread …

But what if, instead, you did things the Rube Gold­berg way?
End­less­ly enter­tain­ing,
need­less­ly com­plex,
and achiev­ing a del­i­cate bal­ance of physics, humor, and excitement!

The book includes an overview of the six sim­ple machines that pow­er most of Goldberg’s inven­tions and puts the tools for mak­ing real-life Rube Gold­berg machines right into read­ers’ hands. It’s the per­fect thing to spark the imag­i­na­tions of bud­ding inven­tors, artists, and thinkers of all ages—because the most promis­ing rela­tion­ships with sci­ence start not with a text­book but with the will­ing­ness to break stuff and ask sil­ly questions!