The Handiest Things in the World [Hardcover]

The mother of invention is right at your fingertips! Ten knuckles, two thumbs, two flat palms, and all those fingers—but our hands can be so much more.

They were once the first pair of earmuffs, a primitive sun visor, and a convenient set of chopsticks. The work done by hands centuries and centuries ago has paved the way for many of our favorite and most useful tools. The always clever Andrew Clements reminds us all that the mother of much invention is right at our fingertips.Andrew Clements is the author of the enormously popularFrindle. More than 10 million copies of his books have been sold, and he has been nominated for a multitude of state awards, including two Christopher Awards and an Edgar Award. His popular works includeAbout Average,Troublemaker,Extra Credit, Lost and Found, No Talking, Room One, Lunch Money, and more. He is also the author of the Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School series. He lives with his wife in Maine and has four grown children. Visit him at AndrewClements.com.

Raquel Jaramillo is a designer and photographer.  She lives in Brooklyn, New York.This unusual concept book looks at all the things that hands can do and the tools that help do them better. On a typical double-page spread, two short rhyming sentences are paired with photos. The first shows achild’s hands performing a job, while the next shows them using a tool. The tool may be named (a child mixes batter in a bowl, accompanied by the text, “Sticky fingers make a mess. / Mixers make the mess much less”), but usually it is referred to by pronoun, creating a simple name-the-object game, as in “Tidy is the way to be. / This will help enormously.” In the first picture, a girl untangles her hair with her fingers; in the next, with a comb. A bit longer, more complex, and less predictable than most picture books presenting concepts, this may appeal to somewhat older kids as well as preschl'