Bill Slevin "Transformations." What are common things made of? Fun and Games
Open the door to...
Do you know what an ordinary tree can turn into? In a mass of everything: in a guitar, in a pencil, in a chair, in paper, in fabric...
Several centuries ago, both children and adults knew perfectly well how a variety of things were created. People prepared their own food, and for this they grew plants and raised animals. They spun wool for clothing and sewed it. They made toys from wood and fabric.
When machines began to be used for production, people began to understand less and less about the structure of what surrounded them. And also - to make things from things that no one had thought of before. For example, from oil, which can be turned not only into fuel, but also into clothes, toys, buttons, and cling film.
Thanks to this book, you will go step by step through all the stages of producing many necessary things. You will visit factories and factories, learn how oil and salt are extracted, see how food, clothing and many other things that we use every day are made.
Open the door to Magic world transformations simple materials V difficult subjects- and you will be amazed at how many miracles are hidden everywhere!
Do you know what an ordinary tree can turn into? In a mass of everything: in a guitar, in a pencil, in a chair, in paper, in fabric...
Several centuries ago, both children and adults knew perfectly well how a variety of things were created. People prepared their own food, and for this they grew plants and raised animals. They spun wool and made clothes from it. They made toys from wood and fabric.
When machines began to be used for production, people began to understand less and less about the structure of what surrounded them. And also - to make things from things that no one had thought of before. For example, from oil, which can be turned not only into fuel, but also into clothes, toys, buttons, and cling film.
Thanks to this book, you will go step by step through all the stages of producing many necessary things. You will visit factories and factories, learn how oil and salt are extracted, see how food, clothing and many other things that we use every day are made.
Our children are very inquisitive. I'm sure your kids also ask a lot of questions. Not all of them can be answered immediately. Sometimes you have to strain yourself and remember what you once knew. Sometimes you just open the Internet and look for an answer, sometimes a book. We have A new book assistant with answers to children's Why, or rather Of what...
Transformations. What are ordinary things made of?
Our boys liked this new product from the Petersburg publishing house. It’s surprising that four-year-old Makar appreciates it and keeps asking to read about how matches or pencils are made.
Thanks to this book, you and your child will see how the most common things are made: matches, pencils, paper, bricks and much more. Read the contents of the book and you will understand how much interesting it contains. I read some of the pages with great enthusiasm and discovered many interesting facts.
A simple pencil can be found in every home. He lives in schoolchildren's pencil cases and on dad's desk. By carefully examining the pencil, you can guess how it was made. And to find out for sure, I suggest reading about it in the book. It’s better not just to read, but also to look at the illustrations. On every page there live little people who show how and what they do in factories and factories.
Small footnotes with interesting information are interesting. For example, you know why some pencils are soft and others are hard.
With the help of very soft pencil You can not only draw and draw, but also conduct experiments. Read our article about how we made a painted car shine with its headlights.
What is soap made from?
Soap can be found in every home. But not every child, or even an adult, knows that soap used to be very rare, as it was heavily taxed. Today, soap is made in the same way as in 1940 from vegetable and animal fats.
On each spread, not only the technical process of manufacturing a particular item is presented, but you can read a little historical information. A long time ago, before erasers were invented, artists used a piece of stale bread - amazing.
In the production of familiar jeans, I was surprised that the parts were cut simultaneously in 100 layers. Each spread of the book is fraught with a lot of interesting information not only for children, but also for parents.
I am sure that any sweet tooth will listen very carefully as mom reads about the process of making her favorite chocolate. It turns out that once upon a time chocolate was a drink and not at all sweet, and chocolate lovers in the evenings sat not in coffee shops, but in chocolaterias - chocolate cafes.
Read the book yourself, read it to your children, look at the pictures and learn about ordinary things amazing facts. And then children will know what toothpaste and pencils, books and cement are made from, and much, much more.
Today in our review is an amazing book that will more than once cause you to cry out in amazement. Why? Because she talks in simple, understandable language for children about everyday magic, about the transformation of some objects into others!
The book “Transformations. What are familiar things made of? - This a real encyclopedia technologies and crafts. How soccer balls and potato chips are made, teddy bears and plastic dinosaurs, band-aids and toothpaste, cat litter and matches, plastic and glass, and much, much more - you can read about all this on the pages of “Transformations.”
Fun and Games
The book is addressed to readers over 6 years old; it has 144 pages, divided into several sections. The first one is “Fun and Games”. Here we talk about how the most ordinary items are made that help people brighten up their leisure time. Dolls, guitars, soccer balls. Or, for example, chewing gum. 
Here's a boat in a bottle. Well, how is it possible to squeeze such high sails through a narrow bottle neck? As a child, this seemed like a real miracle to me! 
How does the whistle work? And who invented it? How many kilometers can the sound of a police whistle be heard? And did you know that the whistle is considered a wind musical instrument? 
Homes Things
The second section of the book is devoted to the most common household things that we use to make life more convenient and easier. For example, cat litter. Necessary thing- for those, of course, who have cats at home. Imagine, cats even live in factories! The filler is being tested! You have to check on someone to see if the filler holds odors well and doesn’t stick to the paws?! 
Since we're talking about cats, here's another production secret - the secret of making dry food. Be sure to read this page out loud to your Murzik! Let him know what ingredients his favorite food is made from, how these dry balls are made and why a giant meat grinder is needed. 
And here is another item needed in the house - toothpaste. And a short excursion into history: what they used to brush their teeth in the old days! Marble chips, crushed crab eyes, dragon blood... Yes, now making toothpaste requires completely different, simpler ingredients. How do you get striped toothpaste? How does it get into tubes? How to make pasta at home? All the answers are here in the book! 
Mirrors, pencils, books, erasers, wax candles, soap, plaster, ceramic dishes - what is not talked about here. Here, for example, in the picture, guess what they produce? Did you guess it? That's right, it's soap. And look what funny little people make it! Yes, they are on every page here, running, fussing, working. And thanks to them, the book turns out not boring and scientific, but exciting and funny. 
And here we talk about how matches are made - a trifle, it would seem, but in the kitchen it is absolutely impossible to do without them! It was very interesting to read the details. I didn’t even think that making the most ordinary matches requires so many different liquids - slowing down the burning, prolonging the burning, helping to ignite easily - and others, others, others. 
Bon appetit!
The third section of the book, “First, second and compote,” is devoted to food. How is a loaf of bread made? Where do milk and salt come from? How is ketchup made? What is everyone's favorite breakfast cereal made from? Imagine, to make breakfast cereal in the form of balls, you need, no less, a whole cannon! 
What does it take to make cheese from milk? Oh, it takes a lot! And a bath, and enzymes, and bacteria, and abs. And if some children (like me as a child) thought that cheese only comes in the form of triangles, then they will be very surprised to find large cheese heads in the illustration! 
I’ll be honest: my son read (or rather listened to) this section of the book with greatest interest. Still would! It also tells about all his favorite treats! Chocolate, chewing marmalade, ice cream. And even cola! What is the favorite fizzy drink of children all over the world made from? The cola recipe is top secret! And this one secret recipe printed on the page of the book! Shh! Don't tell anyone! 
And here's how harmful, but many people love, chips are made. Oh, everything here is gigantic! A giant potato peeler, a huge vegetable slicer, huge bathtubs of cold water and boiling oil (almost like in a fairy tale). And to test the strength of chips, manufacturers throw them at them! 
They meet you by their clothes
We continue to leaf through the book. The next section is the materials from which clothing and shoes are made. I'll show you a few pages. This is how cotton is obtained - the same, natural and hypoallergenic, without which there can be no bed linen or favorite T-shirts. 
We sorted it out with a bang. What is polyester? The same, 100% PE, which is also often written about on clothing labels? Does it also grow in boxes in the fields? Oh no! It's made from oil! And, although synthetics are not so useful, you can no longer do without them in the modern world! 
Here's another amazing material. Silk. It is made from butterflies. Almost. My child, while reading this page, was most interested in what happens to silkworm larvae when their cocoons are “treated with high temperature.” Do you see the stove in the picture? I'm afraid the larvae are unlikely to like it there... But the silk threads turn out amazingly thin and delicate. Beauty requires sacrifice, yes... 
And of course, since we are talking about clothes and what they are sewn and knitted from, we cannot do without wool! Look what funny sheep. Why is she lying down here? Oh, is she getting her hair cut? Where is this rabbit running with its bulging eyes? Oh, they want to cut his hair too? 
The illustrations in this book, as you may have noticed, are very funny. My child chuckled throughout the book and flipped through the pages with great pleasure. A very fun and educational read.
Basics
Interesting books end so quickly! And now last section: from fabrics we move on to other materials. Aluminum, cement, rubber, plastic, bricks... We live in a brick house. What are bricks made of? “Made of clay? - said my son. “In Minecraft, you just melt the clay and you get a brick.” Yes, son, you're almost right. Only in real world, unlike the virtual one, the clay is not melted, but crushed, mixed with additives, fired... In general, a longer process! 
But what kind of hot lava is this? Yes, it's glass! What doesn't it look like? It's hard, transparent and fragile, isn't it? But no. At first, glass is simply sand, soda, gypsum, dolomite and limestone, which are placed in a melting furnace. And only after passing through it, all these materials turn into the same transparent one that is familiar to us... 
And here comes the oil. An irreplaceable and far from endless resource that is tirelessly pumped out from the bowels of our planet. And someday the oil will run out. And what? What will gasoline be made from then? And asphalt? And plastic? Clothes, buttons, toys? We had no idea, in fact, how many objects around us were made of oil! 
The trees are also unrecognizable. Logs are turned into paper - for this they are crushed, boiled, bleached, making “paper dough”, with which many more metamorphoses occur. Paper was once invented in China and made by hand, but is now produced on an industrial scale. And it’s scary to think how many trees go into this! 
And finally, here is this picture. Garbage recycling. Important thing! Saves energy, saves Natural resources and reduces the mountains of garbage on our planet. 
And they start again wonderful transformations! Old, unnecessary things - plastic, paper, glass and metal - are turned into new and useful items.
These are ordinary, industrial miracles.
Text and photo: Katya Medvedeva
Do you know what an ordinary tree can turn into? In a mass of everything: in a guitar, in a pencil, in a chair, in paper, in fabric...
Several centuries ago, both children and adults knew perfectly well how a variety of things were created. People prepared their own food, and for this they grew plants and raised animals. They spun wool for clothing and sewed it. They made toys from wood and fabric.
When machines began to be used for production, people began to understand less and less about the structure of what surrounded them. And also - to make things from things that no one had thought of before. For example, from oil, which can be turned not only into fuel, but also into clothes, toys, buttons, and cling film.
Thanks to this book, you will go step by step through all the stages of producing many necessary things. You will visit factories and factories, learn how oil and salt are extracted, see how food, clothing and many other things that we use every day are made.
Open the door to the magical world of transforming simple materials into complex objects - and you will be amazed at how many miracles are hidden everywhere!
