Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Illustrated by Dave Whamond

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-554556427

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

December 2024

 

For teachers and parents who love a blend of everything, the Hungry For series by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming will always fit the bill. A blend of non-fiction STEM with poetry and humour and fabulous illustrations, Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On is their fourth and latest addition to the series, introducing a variety of engineering concepts in bite-size poems that educate and entertain.

From Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illustrated by Dave Whamond

In a series of eleven poems, some short and others than span several pages, Kari-Lynn Winter and Lori Sherritt-Fleming delve into all manner of the physical sciences. From the concept of fasteners ("Handy Luke Randy's Fit-It-Up Fasteners") to get power from the sun and wind ("Run by the Sun" and "Wind Tower Power"), and to the ubiquitous "Egg Drop" challenge, they cover a full range of engineering concepts. There's lots to learn about simple machines and forces at work and the mechanics of movement of different materials. Better yet, their poems show kids having fun trying things out, making things move, experimenting and observing, and persevering in their learning. I particularly enjoyed the poem "Clear As Mud?" which shows two children working at filtering muddy water to make it potable, and ends with....

It worked a little, I must admit...

I'll try some more. I will not quit!

From Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illustrated by Dave Whamond

The concepts that Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming include, many described in the appended glossary, are a great sampler for the physical sciences and a great introduction for younger readers. Hungry for Engineering would be a fabulous hook to start a lesson or two or even a follow-up for children to identify all the concepts they've already learned. Best of all, the poems are funny rhymes with a host of wacky characters from Scary Miss Mary and Luke Randy to Liam O'Leary the inventor and Marianne the girl who uses wind power to blast her to Japan. And the forms these poems take are everything from a limerick and familiar quatrains, to visual poems, in which some words demonstrate their meanings like fall, drop, and downward. 

There's learning that will happen and rhyming joy with the read-aloud but Dave Whamond's illustrations take the poems from entertaining to vigorously animated. There are Godzilla-like creatures munching skyscrapers, a dragon using a stapler, several ingenious Rube Goldberg machines, and a fully-occupied bug hotel created of a variety of materials. His art is colourful and wacky, inclusive and bustling. There's much to see in the details, and the learning will go beyond the text into the illustrations as they search for simple machines and fasteners and more.

From Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illustrated by Dave Whamond

Whether your little ones are building or taking apart, investigating or observing, Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On will inspire them to see the magnitude of engineering in their lives and in the world around them. They'll be learning while they're laughing, and rhyming their way through the nuts and bolts of engineering, courtesy of Kari-Lynn Winters, Lori Sherritt-Fleming and Dave Whamond.

 

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Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On (2015)

 Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On (2018)

Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On (2022)

Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On (2024)