Imagining Rube Goldberg's childhood, this book by his granddaughter, Jennifer George, portrays him as a young inventor who builds complex machines to solve simple, everyday problems. Each two-page spreads finds Goldberg working on such contraptions as a self-operating swing, and a super simple series of movie snacking machines. Ed Steckley depicts them in colorful cartoons, and the individual parts to these feasible creations are labelled in a key at the side of the page.

"Colorful, amusing, and detailed double-page spreads resemble the real Rube Goldberg's cartoons…. Endpapers with sight gags, a progression of animals, and more add to the merriment, while a concluding look at simple machines keeps the antics educational."—Booklist