Review by Booklist Review
With energetic, colorful visuals and layouts, plus real-world problem-solving applications, this offers an engaging, accessible introduction to engineering, showcasing nine specific fields, from aerospace to electrical. The opening section includes an engineering overview and explanatory flowchart of seven engineering design steps (defining issues, testing ideas, etc.), each paired with an icon that will be seen throughout later chapters, thereby emphasizing particularly relevant design steps. Subsequent chapters focus on engineering areas, conveying their unique and shared features and providing individuals' and groups' endeavors and contributions to the disciplines. For example, biomedical engineers create devices that diagnose medical problems and improve human health, like using 3-D bio-printers for skin grafts. A small-sized font and occasionally dense prose is enlivened by a direct address and factoid sidebars, while the illustrations are intricately detailed cartoon drawings (interspersed with the occasional photo). From designing bridges to developing personal computers to using location technology like GPS, there's much to intrigue, inform, and pique interest here.--Rosenfeld, Shelle Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
Hunt introduces the problem-solving "steps" of engineering, then examines how they're executed in nine case studies from various engineering disciplines. The examples, which include landing a spacecraft, 3D printing, micro-computing, and sewage management, are each accompanied by small icons for the various design processes. Cartoony illustrations in a schematic layout add interest but not technical detail. Glos., ind. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Hunt draws a welcoming introduction to the engineering trade, which isn't just bridges, tunnels, and highways anymore. Engineering has a hard-nosed reputation. Though it is true that engineers use "math, science and technology skills to find creative solutions to problems," Hunt explains that their work is more than mastering a slide rule and engineering drawing. It's the discipline's creative aspect that Hunt concentrates on ("If existing technology won't solve the problem, engineers create new technology, such as a machine that prints skin substitutes for burn victims"), and how cool is that? Hancock's artwork is both bell-clear and engaging, a combination that might bring to mind David Macaulay but is a very different animal. Here the illustrations have a board-game appeal to complement the warmth of the writing, which remains approachable despite tongue twisters such as "manganese dioxide for the cathode, zinc for the anode and an alkaline (the opposite of acidic) substance called potassium hydroxide for the electrolyte." Hunt explains the steps used in engineering designdefining the problem, investigating requirements, developing and comparing solutions, creating, testing, optimizing, sharingbringing in examples that range from aerospace to biomedical to civil to geomantics ("These engineers monitor climate change, predict floods and study how animals adapt to changing environments"). As she makes her way through each example, an inventive use of iconographics informs readers when they are at each particular stagecomparing solutions, optimizingof the design process. Eye-opening, encouraging, and attractivea winning trifecta. (Nonfiction. 10-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
