Part comic strip and part science experiment, Howtoons shows children how to find imaginative new uses for common household items like soda bottles, duct tape, mop buckets, and more-to teach kids the “Tools of Mass Construction”!

Howtoons are cartoons that teach 8- to 15-year-old readers “how to” build, create, and explore things. Combining a fun, full-color cartoon format and real life science and engineering principles, Howtoons are designed to encourage kids to become active participants in the world around them.

Readers meet Tucker and Celine, a lovable brother and sister pair. Sick of watching TV and playing video games, Tucker and Celine decide to conquer every kid’s nightmare: the dreaded summer o’ boredom. Armed with countless ideas for fun projects, they set out to reclaim the sheer joy of playing. Fifteen practical, build-it-yourself projects are weaved into the Tucker and Celine storyline. With the narrators’ help and clear step-by-step instructions, young readers will learn how to set up a workshop, create a marshmallow shooting gun, make ice cream without a freezer, play songs on a turkey baster flute, explore a homemade terrarium, launch a pressure-powered rocket, and more!

Utilizing inexpensive, kid-friendly materials, Howtoons will prove that the world at large is infinitely more exciting than anything happening on the TV or computer screen. Plus, each project will provide readers with practical skills and problem solving know-how that they can use in their everyday lives. These funny, interactive Howtoons are sure to inspire independence and creative savvy in young people everywhere.

Why do seasons happen? Where do animals go in winter? How do plants reproduce?

From changes in the plant world through the year, to penguins preparing a nest, and puma kittens learning to hunt, plants and animals from every corner of the world are used to illustrate the many processes that govern natural life. These include metamorphosis, hibernation, migration, pollination, plus the many environments in which they occur, such as savanna, swamp, jungle, and deciduous woodland.

The four acetate overlays feature:

• Winter to Spring: the Himalayan Mountains change
• Spring to Summer: a South American pampas over time
• Summer to Fall: deciduous woodlands turn with the season
• Fall to Winter: a conifer forest prepares for the cold.

The Uncovering series: Exposing science and technology in stunning color and detail.

Jam-packed with exacting full-color illustrations, these titles focus on topics of particular interest to young readers. Informative text and descriptive captions and sidebars complement dozens of annotated drawings. Each book contains four acetate overlays, used in some cases to show changes over time, in others to show a cutaway interior.

The wired world: Disappearing computers

Is anyone out there? Life on other planets and beyond

From here to there: Wired highways

And the hottest careers for the 21st century

Technology writer Robert Pondiscio offers up-to-the-minute predictions from experts in these and other fields about what the lives of kids — and adults — will be like in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)

Popsicles, potato chips, Silly Putty, Velcro, and many other familiar things have fascinating stories behind them. In fact, dozens of products and everyday items had surprisingly haphazard beginnings. Mistakes That Worked offers forty of these unusual tales, along with hilarious cartoons and weird and amazing facts. Readers will be surprised and inspired!

David Macaulay’s The Way things Work has demystified science and technology for a huge audience. Now, building on the phenomenal successes of The New Way Things Work, The Way Things Work CD-ROM, and Pinball Science CD-ROM, comes the latest in the series, The Way Things Work Kit. Children can enjoy David Macaulay’s humorous approach and create a selection of innovative models with this unique interactive kit. A stunningly simple range of basic components fit together to create a fantastic set of working models that move, lift, push, pump, and much more. This kit contains scales, a sail-powered land yacht, a pneumatic earth mover, a winch, a hoist, a belt-driven fairground ride, a simple vehicle, a balloon-powered car, a propeller-powered car, an electric racing car, a pneumatic robot arm, and a windmill. The Way Things Work Kit is an inventor’s workshop for budding young scientists, engineers, and anyone who wants to know how things work. The kit contains: tons, dowels, and discs combine to produce 12 fantastic working models ular fighters in World Championship Wrestling. It gives the reader an unprecedented look behind the scenes of WCW, revealing how each show is put together and what training the wrestlers have to go through before they can set foot in the ring. With unlimited access to the archives at WCW headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Dorling Kindersley has been able to combine never-before-seen images with a fact-packed text to create an invaluable book for the wrestling fan.