The Way Things Work

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin, 1988 - Juvenile Nonfiction - 384 pages
From levers to lasers, from cameras to computers, this volume is a remarkable overview of the machines and inventions that shape our lives, amusingly presented with a large dose of Macaulay's wit and personality. Full-color illustrations.

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1988)

David Macaulay was born on December 2, 1946 in Lancashire, England, but moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey when he was 11. He received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Before becoming an author and illustrator, he worked as an interior designer, a junior high school teacher, and instructor of interior design at RISD from 1969 to 1973. His first book, Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, was published in 1973. His other books include City, Castle, Pyramid, Mill, Underground, Mosque, The Way Things Work, Rome Antics, Shortcut,and How Machines Work. He has received numerous awards including a Caldecott Honor Medal in 1991 for Black and White and the Washington Children's Book Guild Award for a Body of Non-Fiction Work in 1977. He won the Royal Society young people¿s book prize for the best science books for children for his book How Machines Work.

Bibliographic information