Simple Machines: Wheels, Levers, and Pulleys

A child’s universe obeys the laws of physics no less than ours. In Simple Machines: Wheels, Levers, and Pulleys, David Adler draws children’s attention toward an examination of the underlying principles of motion in that universe: sliding down a slide, pulling a cart, or watching a lumberjack split cinder and timber.

Adler joins a series of anecdotes on wedges, incline plane/ramp, lever, friction, wheel and axle, gears, and pulleys in no single overarching story. The lack of a plot is not, however, a downfall: Teachers, parents, or children may take advantage of the wide breadth of material Adler covers to single out one or two principles for their own imaginative storytelling. Its structure therefore inspires further interaction in a classroom, from child to parents or among children. The gentle watercolors display a clear link from picture to concept to word. In the explanation of force, for instance, the author clearly illustrates the famous vector forces that Newton elucidated in his Principa with arrows around the lumberjack’s axe.

The book is a fielding gateway to inspiring an early interest toward understanding the intricacies of Archimedes, Newton, Maxwell, or Einstein, all young revolutionaries who made quick playthings of the predominant adult universes of the world.