Until I Met Dudley: How everyday things really work

I have used this book to help me teach explanation writing. The extraordinary explanations help prompt children's imaginations and encourage them to make up their own ideas about how things work. A great book!

My son was telling me about this book that his class had been studying at school. It sounded really interesting, so I ordered a copy. It's great, first it describes how a child thinks things work (I agree with the dishwasher, lol!) and then it tells you how the various household appliances really work. It uses language that the child (and I) understands. Fun, and educational.

A well written and entertaining book which explains how household appliances work, my son is seven and loves reading this.

It was really hard to find this book so I was very pleased to find it. Used to teach explanation texts to upper primary, it brings a really interesting and fresh approach. The text combines a detailed explanation of how an object actually works with an ingenious alternative explanation which stimulate discussion and writing around the text. Ideal for any child who asks 'I wonder how that works?'...

As a teacher it is a struggle to find child friendly books to teach children about explanation texts - this is fabulous for it. It has a fun explanation (polar bears work the fridge) and then Dudley explains how it really works. Children (& adults) find it interesting. I got the class to write their own versions of how things worked -- they were great!

Beautiful illustrations, very entertaining read.

Amazing book for helping children to think in a different way. This is organised and structured in a fun, visual way to introduce how things work and get kids to think about the process leading to explanations, which is not the easiest genre to teach. Super buy.

This book engages children's imagination. It is an excellent book to use in a classroom when looking at explanation texts. Pupils enjoy reading the explanations. The contrast between the imagined and correct explanations of how things work is excellent. It also has helped children to write more imaginatively and think about how to extend their writing. I highly recommend this book.