A Compendium of Curious Contraptions: A Guessing Game about History's Most Unusual Artifacts written by Anna Goldfield, illustrated by Paula Zamudio - ADVISABLE

A Compendium of Curious Contraptions: A Guessing Game about History's Most Unusual Artifacts written by Anna Goldfield, illustrated by Paula Zamudio. PICTURE BOOK. St. Martin's Publishing Group (Macmillan Publishers), 2025. $20. 9781684494538

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Archaeologist Anna Goldfield shares a variety of mysterious historical artifacts from around the world in a unique guessing game to see the weird and wonderful things humans have used throughout history.

I thought this was a super fun way to engage readers in historical nonfiction. Each page features different clues to help the reader guess what the artifact might have been used for and then they can uncover the flap to find out more details about the historical artifacts. The author included a wide range of historical artifacts from all over the world, not just Western Europe. I could see this being used as supplemental materials for a history class, especially when talking about artifacts and how historians & archeologists learn about the past through what humans leave behind.

Kiera, ELA teacher, #bookswithbeddes