Publishers Weekly calls Shanda McCloskey’s SMASH, CRASH, TOPPLE, ROLL! an “irresistible” hat tip to Rube Goldberg’s “brilliance” and “delicious nerdiness” in third starred review
Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll! The Inventive Rube Goldberg—A Life in Comics, Contraptions, and Six Simple Machines
Catherine Thimmesh, illus. by Shanda McCloskey. Chronicle, $19.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-4521-4422-1
Rube Goldberg (1883–1970) was born in an era defined by massive technological upheaval. But where others recoiled at the march of progress, Goldberg saw “the funny,” writes Thimmesh in lucidly rendered short chapters. Employing his talent in cartooning and what he learned studying mining engineering, Goldberg created convoluted, comical contraptions with enduring cultural impact. Digitally colored ink drawings by McCloskey tip a hat to the subject’s visual impishness (an opening how-to explains “The Simple Way to Read This Book”), and go on to chronicle his love of catapults and chain reactions, his brilliance in overcomplicating the principles of simple machines, and the delicious nerdiness of his step-by-step instructional captions, which “followed a narrative logic that made perfect sense in context (even if liberties were taken with the laws of nature and physics).” Young makers should find the final how-to chapter irresistible, “Because, really, why do something the simple way... if, instead, there is a catapult option?” Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 8–12. (May)