A Compendium of Curious Contraptions: A Guessing Game About History's Most Unusual Artefacts
By (Author) Anna Goldfield
Illustrated by Paula Zamudio
By (author) Neon Squid
Priddy Books
Priddy Books
26th August 2025
18th September 2025
United Kingdom
Children
Non Fiction
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Machines and how things work
Educational: Social sciences, social studies
Hardback
64
Width 228mm, Height 280mm
The book features mystery items from the past, with a set of clues as to what each one 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.
Anna Goldfield is a podcaster, science writer, illustrator, and archaeologist. Anna works on the kids' science podcast Brains On! and presents the popular archaeology podcast The Dirt. Anna is also the author of The Mind-Blowing World of Extraordinary Competitions by Neon Squid.