Machines in Motion: The Amazing History of Transportation

by Tom Jackson

Overview

Every day, all over the world, people travel: short trips or great, long voyages, moving slowly and steadily or racing along at super-fast speeds. They make their trips in cars, trains, planes, ships and on bikes-and some people have even blasted off in rockets! But how did these vehicles become what we know now?

With intricately illustrated timelines, this book takes readers on a journey through the developmental history of various modes of transportation – from chariots to electric cars, dugout canoes to ocean liners, cable cars to bullet trains, and the many iterations in between. The fascinating stories behind each of these machines join together to reveal a comprehensive history of how new and inventive forms of transportation have built off one another to change our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547603374
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 11.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Tom Jackson has been a science writer for children and adults for more than twenty years. He lives in Bristol, UK.
https://tomjackson.weebly.com/

Chris Mould is a freelance illustrator. Known for his quirky black and white line work, he has illustrated a number of books for children, including A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig. He lives in West Yorkshire, UK.
@chrismouldink (Instagram)
@chrismouldink (Twitter)

Editorial Reviews

Mould's black-and-white cartoon artwork is dazzling. A vibrant, well-paced exploration.” —Kirkus Reviews

"This book is perfect . . . for young transportation enthusiasts." - School Library Journal

From the Publisher

12/01/2019

Gr 2–4—In this British import that studies 12 forms of transportation, each mode of travel is given a couple of spreads. Trains start off the book, followed by ships, cars, balloons, bikes, and spacecraft. Information is presented in a frenzied hodgepodge of drawings, time lines, and factoids. Cartoon illustrations lean toward a humorous tone, and some pictures are repeated. For example, the 1923 autogyro is introduced in the section on helicopters. The exact same vehicle is shown on the next spread, with more detailed facts. There is plenty of information here; the section on submarines starts in the 330s BCE and shows Alexander the Great using a diving bell and ends up in 2012 with James Cameron making a solo dive to the Mariana Trench at the very bottom of the western Pacific Ocean. VERDICT While not for reports, this book is perfectly browsable, especially for young transportation enthusiasts.—Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2019-08-26
A sprawling history of a dozen modes of transport.

We are surrounded by and typically make daily use of some form of transport. Jackson and Mould train their spotlight on 12 types: trains, ships, cars, balloons, bikes, airplanes, tanks, helicopters, rockets, spacecraft, working vehicles, and submarines. Each mode is introduced with a two-page timeline spread illustrated by a spread-spanning rambling path through an appropriate setting for each vehicle. "Cars" from an ancient pottery wheel to the Ford Model T putter along a winding path; "Bikes" from the 1817 "dandy horse" to the "superbike" that won the 1992 Olympics navigate a hedge maze. Mould's black-and-white cartoon artwork is dazzling as it works its way from ancient systems of transport to modern types. The timelines pick out stellar moments in the development of each transport, and the pages that follow each timeline go into greater detail of the highlights. And the histories are routinely amazing, with 600-year-old trains, high-speed dreadnoughts, 458-meter-long supertankers, sound-barrier-punching automobiles, Titanic-sized zeppelins, the flying monk of 1,010 C.E. (he crash-landed and broke both legs), Leonardo da Vinci's tank, a 4-billion-horsepower coal digger, and 2,300-year-old diving bells. Jackson's text has considerable bounce and enthusiasm while managing to convey lots of tantalizing information and historical movement. There is no index, but the table of contents provides easy entry.

A vibrant, well-paced exploration. (Nonfiction. 5-11)

Kirkus Reviews