Kay’s Incredible Inventions

Adam Kay is well known for his funny books on the human body – Kay's Anatomy – and medicine – Kay's Marvellous Medicine. He is now branching out into other areas of human knowledge and creativity, namely inventions.

Divided into three sections – at home, out and about, and technology – this book is a compendium of the many ‘world-changing’ items that the human brain has come up with. Included are the classics, such as the toilet, deodorant and TV, as well as other everyday essential inventions like bubble wrap, zebra crossings and windscreen wipers.  

He brings his trademark humour to this book by including a fact-checking robot butler who interjects frequently, several lists of inventions that didn’t quite work and, of course, Henry Paker’s many brilliant illustrations add humorous details as well.

With quizzes (‘true or poo?’) at the end of each mini section and several joke inventions from Adam (a haircut hat and a self-refilling glass are examples), this is great fun, while also being informative about how people lived in the past.