How to Build a Chocolate Bridge

How to Build a Chocolate Bridge is, despite its title, nothing to do with food or baking. It is instead a refreshing take on materials for key stage two level readers. Written by engineer Roma Agrawal, this book allows the reader to explore ordinary materials and whether they have what it takes to create extraordinary builds, posing questions such as that in the title and others like ‘can you make a skyscraper from pasta’ or ‘can you make a piano from wool’. It’s both entertaining and interesting and great for those exploring this area of the curriculum, or those with an interest in science in their leisure reads.

Each area of engineering, from bridges to rockets, is explored separately to explain the science required to make it successfully before the fun question is asked and the experiments can begin. Each experiment then answers the question by instructing the reader to follow step-by-step instructions which are clearly explained as they go along, adding plenty of facts and fun to the science at play. 

Alongside the two sections outlined above are several additional spreads to add more colour to the learning, such as a spread on ten inventive scientists and engineers who discovered something unexpected, and a spread on unexpected materials and how they were discovered and are now used in everyday life and a great spread on accidental inventions- such as the Post-It Note and Play-Doh! 

In terms of the format the book is bright and colourful, with short chunks of information and quirky illustrations, making it appealing to the intended audience. 

How to Build a Chocolate Bridge is a great follow up from Agrawal’s recent and equally entertaining book Seven Small Inventions that Changed the World. If you’re looking for something different to brighten up your science collection then I would highly recommend this book.