Baby Loves Structural Engineering!

Baby Loves Science

by Ruth Spiro, Irene Chan (Illustrator)

Big, brainy science for the littlest listeners.

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book explores the basics of building--from foundation to rooftop--and ties it all to baby's world. Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

With tongue firmly in cheek, the Baby Loves Science series introduces highly intellectual science concepts to the littlest learners.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Architecture, Nonfiction

20 pages, Board Book

First published October 16, 2018

About the author

Ruth Spiro is the author of the Baby Loves Science series, published by Charlesbridge. These adorably illustrated board books contain expert-reviewed science, yet are simple enough for the very youngest readers. Another new picture book series, Made by Maxine, will be published by Dial in October, 2018.

Ruth is a frequent speaker at schools and conferences, and recent presentations include the Early Childhood STEM Conference at CalTech and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Reviews

[Laura]

It's difficult to review such a simple board book on its own away from series, but I will try because the simplicity is what is so cool. So many of the "quantum physics for babies lol" books are meant to be funny, it's for pictures and cool points etc, a fun gift for parents in specialized fields but a bit of a gag gift nevertheless.

The two I have read of these, this and Thermodynamics, are not like that. They're teaching very simplified concepts, but keeping them simple actually teaches the concept. For babies, there's really pretty artwork and just the pure joy of being read to, for older kids like my 4 year old, they can grasp the science and start learning some vocabulary, for adults like me, there's an easy introduction to a subject I don't think I know anything about where I get to see that something I already know is part of it so it seems more approachable.

Here, baby is building with blocks. To build a sturdy structure, baby needs a foundation, walls, and a roof. The drawings keep it relatable, comparing the block structure to real world buildings, and there are some extra vocab words sprinkled in for as your child grows and gets more interested. For someone who doesn't know much about this stuff, I appreciate that while live and dead loads aren't explored in this book, the words are used as a label so now I know what to google if my kid wants to learn more. That's the sort of thing I mean when I say these books are simple but not simplistic.

I'll definitely get some more in this series for my kids and as gifts.

[Ricardo Arrechea]

Everything in this book is factually correct.

[Giuliana Gramani]

Fofo!

[Kathleen Abrams]

Fantastic book! I learned so much about building structures. Cecelia the 9 month old enjoyed it just as much as I did

[Deke Moulton]

I have read quite a few of the “baby loves” series and even though I believe this one came later, it seems like the most applicable to what babies do. Babies are always building things with blocks, and this book does a really fascinating way to correlate that kind of building with actual structural engineering. I also enjoy stories where I get to learn things, so I was able to learn about different loads and how there are dead loads or living loads. Pretty fun stuff! So the stuff that interested me would obviously go over the head of any kid, but it would be a neat primer To point out architecture to kids in a way that they could connect to what they are doing with blocks.

[Fay Shaw]

Love it! The authors decompose buildings into familiar shapes. Columns, foundations, and roofs are explained as rectangles, squares, and triangles. Bonus points introducing different kinds of of bridges - those made with cables, arches, and beams. In the last few pages is a beautiful city - an "I spy" for all the structures in the book. Well done.

[Christy]

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book explores the basics of building--from foundation to rooftop--and ties it all to baby's world. Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

[Lindsey]

The author makes engineering terms like "load" and "structure" very approachable and easy to understand. Compares a baby to an engineer and how they can build, use shapes, and need to support their structure.

[Andrés]

Another winner in the series. The concepts are digestible and the book incorporates so much other learning as well, like shapes and weather. From fairy tales to playroom to the big wide world, a little reader can relate to many of the things they see in this book as they learn STEM. Very cool.

[Rosalind Andrews]

Kept me well entertained. Good use of Legos.

[VBergen]

My baby and my 9 years old daughter like this book a lot. The illustrations and colors are beautiful. Good quality cardboard, so far drooling proof :)

[Anna]

When she is big enough to play with blocks, niece might enjoy this one

[Dewi]

Bagus banget seri Baby Loves ! Menerangkan sains dan hal-hal rumit dalam bahasa plus perumpamaan yang sederhana.

[Srujan]

Introduction to basic structural engineering terms like foundation, wall, roof, triangles, arch, etc. Fairly nice. The parent can introduce more terms depending on the child's age and interest.

[Chloe Frizzle]

I love how this one keeps it simple, connecting things to blocks. My toddler likes pointing at the wolf, as there's imagery here from the Three Little Pigs.

[Hannah]

This was cute! Not too technical, but still showed all the fun and key concepts in structural engineering. I like the parallelism with what the baby built with blocks and some of the common types or famous structures that engineers designed. I also liked the way they showed all the loads on the house! I'm used to seeing boring-looking diagrams.

[J.]

This was a hit when my kid was younger, but now that she's reaching PreK age, I really wish that it went into a bit more depth. While it does fit the "Baby Loves" idea, I feel like just a couple more pages could have helped it span a bit wider of a target audience without losing anything.

For toddlers: 4 stars.
For PreK: 3 stars.

[Rick]

Cute way to introduce some of these concepts to adults as well as babies.

[Elizabeth]

This book introduces very basic concepts of structural engineering -- a structure has a foundation, walls, and a roof -- and then introduces the concept of the forces that act on a structure being called "loads" (I learned things from the illustration of a house with "live loads" and "dead loads" labeled, but that seems a bit beyond the board book reader -- adding to my feeling that the books in this series are increasingly more for adults than kids). I did like the "Engineers find ways to make structures strong enough to bear loads" with its illustration of columns, cabes, arches, and beams -- introducing the concept that buildings don't have to be made of just solid rectangles.

I like that the illustrations also weave in the story of the Three Little Pigs. It's a bit of an Easter egg for the reader but also provides another avenue for conversation with the child.