Just Like Rube Goldberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Behind the Machines

Gr 3-5--Everyone loves a Rube Goldberg machine, whether you've been mesmerized by a complicated toast-making, orange juice pouring contraption in a movie (you know the type), played Mousetrap, or worked on a slightly wacky high school science project to build one yourself. Aronson's picture book biography recounts moments from the life of an imaginative young boy turned discontented engineer turned driven newspaper cartoonist. Goldberg's observant nature and playful spirit produced decades of popular diagrams of totally unlikely and labyrinthine inventions for the world to enjoy. Aronson's narrative hovers between thoughtful biography and an inspirational tribute to Goldberg's work, which will leave readers wanting more information, especially about the cultural legacy of his ubiquitous cartoons. Neubecker's illustrations are animated and precise, connecting the unpredictable threads of the cartoonist's life to the spirit of his inventions. An image of a dizzyingly complicated sewer system calls to mind the early 20th-century milieu of discovery, invention, and rapid social change in which Goldberg's work was born and flourished. VERDICT Playful illustrations drive this loving biography for elementary-school-age inventors and dreamers.--Emilia Packard, Austin, TX

In opening pages, Aronson describes artist and inventor Rube Goldberg: "In a funny way, his life was just like one of his famous inventions: an improbable and inefficient chain reaction that ends up making perfect sense." As a child, shy Goldberg immersed himself in drawing, but when his parents didn't support his plans to become a cartoonist, he studied engineering, then quit his steady job to follow his dream and embrace an alter ego. Aronson reveals Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, "who invented one intricate machine after another." Neubecker's idiosyncratic art depicts several of Professor Butts's contraptions--one that elaborately punches holes in doughnuts, another that turns off a light. Readers will enjoy Goldberg's brilliantly impractical inventions and nutty personality. Ages 3-8. (Mar.)