View source for Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention by Wallace and Gromit

{{infobox2
|title=Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention
|author=Wallace and Gromit
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lovely annual-style TV tie-in book combining two of Britain's best loved animated characters and the wonderful, occasionally loopy, world of science. A perfect present.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=192
|publisher=Harper Collins
|website=http://www.wallaceandgromit.com
|date=October 2010
|isbn=0007382189
|aznuk=0007382189
|aznus=0007382189
|cover=0007382189
}}

We don't have many rules around these 'ere parts, but one of them is that we don't review TV tie-in books. It's not snobbery; it's just that there's only so many books we have time to cover and TV covers itself quite nicely already. So I'm being naughty by reviewing ''Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention'', but I don't care. I couldn't resist it! And Christmas is coming up, so you need some gift ideas, don't you?

Out to coincide with a BBC1 series (in November 2010, if you're coming to this long after I wrote it), it's an annual-style book about inventors and inventions, past and present, useful and crazy. Topics covered include robots and robotics, amazing cars, bikes and planes, space travel and spy technology. Everything a curious child could want, in other words.

Serious explanations of complicated scientific topics sit alongside quirky examples - so the page explaining nuclear fusion goes with British Rail's 1973 patent application for a flying saucer. Yep. You read that right. British Rail patented a flying saucer. The thought's irresistible, isn't it? Did you know about Einstein's fridge, which uses butane, water and ammonia to create vapour compression cooling and needs no electricity? It got a cool - their pun, not mine! - reception at the time, but in these days of global warming, suddenly looks a lot more attractive. If that doesn't float your boat, you could always build your own fridge from scrap metal.

Lots of pictures, breezy text and a good line in bad jokes make this the kind of book that will appeal to a wide range of children. Actually, I wouldn't mind a copy in my own stocking this Christmas, and I'm 46!

My thanks to the good people at Harper Collins for sending the book.  We also have a review of [[Wallace & Gromit : The Complete Newspaper Strips Collection Vol 2 by Jimmy Hansen and Mychailo Kazybird]].

They might also like [[Will Jellyfish Rule the World? by Leo Hickman]], [[The Comic Strip History of Space by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner]] or [[Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and Stuff by Glenn Murphy]].

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[[Category:Children's Non-Fiction]]