LoveReading4Kids Says
Winner of The English Association 2013 Prize (Non-Fiction 7-11)
Do you ever wonder where your clothes come from? Or how we make chocolate? This interactive guide is filled with pop ups, pull-tabs and booklets to explain exactly how we make stuff! This is the third title in the award-winning How it Works series and the first title in the series, How The World Works, won the prestigious Royal Society Young People's Book Prize.
LoveReading4Kids
About How We Make Stuff
Where do our clothes come from? What's the link between gorillas and mobile phones? Does chocolate grow on trees? Answering these questions and many more, How We Make Stuff is an engaging exploration of the way we use Earth's natural resources. Featuring pop-ups, pull-tabs and booklets, it is an interactive extravaganza!
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Christiane Dorion Press Reviews
How We Make Stuff by Christiane Dorion | Book Review.
How We Make Stuff is an engaging and educational exploration of how we design, produce and dispose of everyday products such as t-shirts, mobile phones and burgers. What are rubber ducks really made of? Where do burgers come from? Does chocolate really grow on trees? How do we turn trees into paper? What's the link between gorillas and mobile phones? If you are a parent, your child often bombards you with the most fascinating questions -- questions that probably make you stop and think, too. In How We Make Stuff, writer Christiane Dorion provides some answers to some of the burning questions of childhood -- at least a few of which remained unanswered from her own youth. This large, highly interactive book uses colourful diagrammes and flowcharts, along with a variety of fun booklets, flaps, tabs and pop-ups that describe how we design, produce and dispose of everyday products such as clothing, mobile phones and several common food items. It also explains the history and environmental impacts of human technology. Each section or chapter is a 2-page spread filled with charming and quirky paintings by artist Beverley Young, who illustrated the other two books in this award-winning How it works series. At the beginning of this book, a group of factories pop up, showing how our inventions have changed how a variety of everyday items are made. Later in the book, another section points to the curious juxtaposition between single-use disposable products that are made from materials that will last forever -- unless we develop methods for recycling or reusing these items. Along those lines, one of the flaps is a refrigerator door that can be opened to show the six types of plastic containers we use, and next to that is a pull-tab showing what happens to plastics that are not recycled. The Guardian
About Christiane Dorion
Christiane Dorion is an award-winning author and educational consultant. She has written a number of children’s books about the natural world and has worked with WWF and other environmental organisations for over 30 years.
On scooping the Best Book with Facts Award at the Blue Peter Book Awards 2022 Christiane said: 'I am thrilled to win the Blue Peter Book Award amongst so many fantastic books. The fact that it is judged by children makes it even more special, as they are the best critics. I would say to children, read about what you enjoy. Whether it’s stepping into an imaginary world of wizards or learning all about amazing creatures or tropical jungles, books help us to understand the world around us and stimulate our curiosity and imagination. They can be funny, informative and inspiring. If you find books daunting, you don’t have to read it from beginning to end in one go. You can dip in and out, look at the pictures and go for the bits of text you find most interesting.'
"I was born in a beautiful part of the world, Quebec City, Canada. From a very young age, I was passionate about the environment and writing books for children has always been my dream. I studied geography at university and then completed a Masters Degree in Education. For four years, I lectured at Laval University, working with primary schools and introducing teacher trainees to geography and environmental issues. In 1987, I obtained a scholarship to carry out a PhD in environmental education in the UK and England became my new home. When I completed my PhD, the National Curriculum was being developed for schools in England and Wales and I was asked to contribute to the guidelines for environmental education. For eight years, I coordinated the Primary Education programme at WWF-UK, producing educational resources and working with schools to implement environmental education. In 2002, I left WWF and became an educational consultant and writer. I currently work with Forum for the Future, a non- profit organisation with a mission to promote sustainable development with business and the public sector. My main role is to assess and to help with the ongoing development of the Masters programme on Leadership for Sustainable Development.
"My passion for writing children’s books stems from the thousands of questions I asked as a child, which remained, unanswered. How big is the universe? When did life begin? Why do volcanoes erupt? Why do we build cities around active volcanoes? Why isn’t there water everywhere around the world? Through my books, I aim to inspire and encourage children to explore the complex systems of the world we live in and to take positive actions to protect our planet for future generations. I am particularly interested in how we can learn to design and make things in a different way so we can use the earth’s resources more wisely and reduce the amount of waste we produce. I am also very interested in how we can learn from nature and our fellow creatures to turn waste into precious resources."
(Biography taken from the author's website - click here to visit.)
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