The first book in the Bad Ideas Book Club, aptly named How to Eat an Airplane, explains: If you want to eat an airplane, there are a few things you should know. The truth is, most airplanes are too large to eat by yourself, so if you want to eat an airplane, you should have a party. It’s fact-based picture book fiction at its most absurd! By crossing two unrelated topics—dinner etiquette and jet plane mechanics—How to Eat an Airplane creates an unexpected and absurdly funny experience for young readers. Inspired by the true story of Michel Lotito, who from 1978 to 1980 ate an entire Cessna 150 airplane and holds the Guinness World Record for Strangest Diet, the book covers everything from setting the table with forklifts and toasting with engine oil to fastening your seat belts at the table and taking a nice stretch in between courses—preferably on the airplane’s wings. There’s a disclaimer included for anyone who believes the book is an actual guide—as well as four pages of fascinating and relevant airplane facts. Perfect for precocious readers and airplane lovers as well as teachers and parents looking to enjoy something unique and fun. The Bad Ideas Book Club: Where the best ideas are bad ideas.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this extraordinary thriller about airline safety, business intrigue, and a deadly cover-up. “The pacing is fast, the suspense nonstop.”—People Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin is virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner flying from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation. Airframe is nonstop reading, full of the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that are the hallmarks of Michael Crichton. “A one-sitting read that will cause a lifetime of white-knuckled nightmares.”—The Philaelphia Inquirer “The ultimate thriller . . . [Crichton’s] stories are always page-turners of the highest order. . . . [Airframe] moves like a firehouse dog chasing a red truck.”—The Denver Post “Dramatically vivid.”—The New York Times

The science behind a good meal: all the sounds, sights, and tastes that make us like what we're eating—and want to eat more. Why do we consume 35 percent more food when eating with one other person, and 75 percent more when dining with three? How do we explain the fact that people who like strong coffee drink more of it under bright lighting? And why does green ketchup just not work? The answer is gastrophysics, the new area of sensory science pioneered by Oxford professor Charles Spence. Now he's stepping out of his lab to lift the lid on the entire eating experience—how the taste, the aroma, and our overall enjoyment of food are influenced by all of our senses, as well as by our mood and expectations. The pleasures of food lie mostly in the mind, not in the mouth. Get that straight and you can start to understand what really makes food enjoyable, stimulating, and, most important, memorable. Spence reveals in amusing detail the importance of all the “off the plate” elements of a meal: the weight of cutlery, the color of the plate, the background music, and much more. Whether we’re dining alone or at a dinner party, on a plane or in front of the TV, he reveals how to understand what we’re tasting and influence what others experience. This is accessible science at its best, fascinating to anyone in possession of an appetite. Crammed with discoveries about our everyday sensory lives, Gastrophysics is a book guaranteed to make you look at your plate in a whole new way.

In the history of cooking, there has been no more challenging environment than those craft in which humans took to the skies. The tale begins with meals aboard balloons and zeppelins, where cooking was accomplished below explosive bags of hydrogen, ending with space station dinners that were cooked thousands of miles below. This book is the first to chart that history worldwide, exploring the intricacies of inflight dining from 1783 to the present day, aboard balloons, zeppelins, land-based aircraft and flying boats, jets, and spacecraft. It charts the ways in which commercial travelers were lured to try flying with the promise of familiar foods, explains the problems of each aerial environment and how chefs, engineers, and flight crew adapted to them, and tells the stories of pioneers in the field. Hygiene and sanitation were often difficult, and cultural norms and religious practices had to be taken into account. The history is surprising and sometimes humorous at times some ridiculous ideas were tried, and airlines offered some strange meals to try to attract passengers. It’s an engrossing story with quite a few twists and turns, and this first book on the subject tells it with a light touch.

From the creators of the absurdly funny picture book How to Eat an Airplane comes a new spin on adopting a pet...truck. This vehicular spin on pet adoption features an unlikely pet: a dump truck. Kids will not only laugh, but learn. Just like a new pet, a new dump truck is a heap of responsibility, but it’s also loads of fun. Just remember: If you take care of it well, your dump truck will be your forever friend. Includes tips on: selecting the perfect leash at the hardware store; whether to feed your truck diesel or regular; cleaning up your truck’s messes at the dump; socializing with other trucks, and much more. Peter Pearson and Mircea Catusanu’s follow-up to How to Eat an Airplane is clever fun for pet lovers and truck aficionados—whether their pet (or truck) barks, meows, or honks.

This riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane. Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring--she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak's art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson's story of this little-known but important engineer.