Delivery included to the United States

A Compendium of Curious Contraptions

A Compendium of Curious Contraptions A Guessing Game About History's Most Unusual Artifacts

Hardback (30 Sep 2025)

  • $20.43
Pre-order

Includes delivery to the United States

Other formats & editions

New
Hardback (18 Sep 2025) $20.16

Publisher's Synopsis

An illustrated guide to some of the most bizarre objects from history by archaeologist Anna Goldfield, including a guessing game for kids to play!

Each page contains a mystery item from the past, with a set of clues as to what it was used for. Readers can take a guess before unfolding a giant flap to reveal the answer. Without giving too much away, the book contains Inuit snow goggles, designed to protect eyes from the blinding glare of the ice, an ancient Chinese earthquake detector featuring several metal frogs, and err.. the Royal fistula--an item used to perform delicate surgery on the rear end of King Louis XIV of France.

Kids will delight in trying to work out the purpose of the beautiful objects, brought to life by Mexican illustrator Paula Zamudio, and will learn a lot about the cultures that created them - from ancient Rome to Polynesia, and Mesopotamia to Viking Scandinavia.

Book information

ISBN: 9781684494538
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Imprint: Neon Squid
Pub date:
Language: English
Number of pages: 64
Weight: 454g
Height: 280mm
Width: 228mm
Spine width: 25mm