Book excerpt: Explore the mechanics of everyday things like toasters, toilets and kites with fun and simple infographics sure to change how a reader views the world. Valorie Fisher takes infographics to a new level with bright, colorful visuals that are perfect for young, inquisitive minds. Her eye-catching mix of photographs and illustrations compels readers to dive in and explore how things work—from paper airplanes to straws, crayons to kites, pencils to boats. This book will answer questions kids have long wanted answers to and go on to answer questions they didn’t even know they had! Do you know why your shadow changes shape throughout the day? Do you know how a whistle makes that trilling sound? How about why a rubber ball bounces? All these questions and more are explained in this exciting book, the first of two in the Now You Know series. With the growing focus on STEM for this early age group, Now You Know: How It Works is perfectly timed to reach that early reader and instill a love of STEM from day one. Praise for Now You Know: How It Works A Junior Library Guild Selection “A bright and stimulating introduction to the mechanics and makeup of everyday objects and phenomena . . . An engaging and visually tempting starting point to prepare kids for more in-depth titles like David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work Now.” —School Library Journal “This educational guide introduces the mechanics behind familiar objects, machines, and physical phenomena . . . Fisher introduces complex concepts concisely while gently suggesting to readers that there is a world of knowledge to be discovered in everyday things.” —Publishers Weekly