Review by Choice Review
This enhanced facsimile edition of Liddell's classic work (first published in 1926) provides a delightful trip to the early days of 20th-century children's literature. The story itself, presented with copies of Liddell's original full-color illustrations, is a combination of information and fantasy. Little Machinery has created himself from the leftover pieces of a train, a trolley, and an automobile. His love for labor motivates his daily activity of building things for the animals of the forest where he lives. Alongside the story of this character, Liddell imparts technical information about how her character creates his inventions. The book begins with a foreword by John Stilgoe, who offers basic engineering background and clarifies contemporaneous gender issues. In her closing analysis, Beeck (Illinois State Univ.) not only considers the positive view of industrialization conferred by Liddell's story for early-20th-century readers but also deliberates on the 21st-century realities of the abandoned pieces of the industrialized world. Beeck also explores Liddell's life, scrutinizes the story's construction, and reflects on the story's place in children's literature before closing with an examination of Liddell's publication process for the book. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. T. L. Stowell Adrian College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Billing itself as "the first picture book ever done for modern children and their world" when it was published in 1926, this story of an industrious mechanical boy returns with a critical essay by professor and PW contributor Nathalie op de Beeck and a foreword from Harvard's John Stilgoe. Liddell's lithe hero uses drills, shovels, looms and electricity to demonstrate technology's seemingly limitless possibilities. The modern, playful artwork and some whimsical asides ("He isn't making anything but noise in this picture," writes Liddell as Little Machinery gleefully operates a jackhammer) will delight the design-minded. In looking at how technology was depicted early in the assembly line-era, readers can see a clear conduit to children's ongoing fascination with trucks, tools and other mechanisms. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
