Once Upon a Big Idea: The Story of Inventions

Once Upon a Big Idea: The Story of Inventions by James Carter, illustrated by Margaux Carpentier
 
Telescopes, clocks, trains, bridges, boats, medicines and mobile phones: every invention begins with a human idea. This joyful picture book travels from early materials and monumental building to the inventions that shape modern life, showing curious readers how people have continually found new ways to make, move, communicate and understand the world.
 
James Carter’s buoyant rhyming text gives this enormous subject a memorable beat, while Margaux Carpentier’s bold, energetic illustrations make the journey through time inviting and easy to share. Along the way, children meet materials such as stone, concrete and nylon and are encouraged to think about how inventions change lives and how future ideas might be created with greater care for the planet.
 
A brilliant read-aloud for children who love asking who invented things, how everyday objects came to exist and what people might create next. It brings poetry, science, history, engineering and environmental thinking together in one lively book.