About the Holiday

National Live Creative Day was established to encourage people to embrace their innovative side. There are so many ways to be creative from the arts to science to sports to how you express yourself. Kids seem to know this inherently as they go about exploring and interacting with all the new things they see, hear, and do every day. Introducing kids to all kinds of hobbies, subjects, and professions expands their definition of creativity and their outlook on the future. Encouraging them to use their particular talents, helps them build confidence and find their place in the world. Today’s book entices children to look deeper, beyond the surface of what they see and do to discover a whole new way to interact with the world.

Thank you to Carolrhoda Books for sending me this book for review!

Take It Apart

Written by Katey Howes | Illustrated by E.V.

From the outside if you saw a little girl unravel a wool sweater, unscrew all the workings of an alarm clock, dismantle a tricycle, and take a mallet to an old animal skeleton, you might think you were just in the presence of a “Destroyer.” But if you could look inside this girl’s mind, you’d see her “gears spinning” as her eyes and hands go to work with the disassembled pieces to understand how the original items operated and to create something new. Her curiosity turns, in fact, to multi-disciplinary inspiration: “Breaking things down is a science. An art. / Need solutions? Need answers? Just . . . take it apart!”

Got old technology? Unused items? They have a wealth of knowledge to share with the uninitiated, and for tinkerers, crafters, and inventors, they can be “quite the supply of nuts, bolts, screws, and springs” ready to become something new or repair something well-loved. But the “take-it-apart-er” mindset doesn’t stop there. It can be applied to so many disciplines, such as reading (breaking down words into each “. . . syllable. Letter”) and math (grouping numbers to “understand better”) and science (looking deeply, “magnified”).

When you start looking around in your yard or garden and even at some of the food you eat, you’ll soon see that the natural world already uses “take it apart.” You can join in on your own or with friends, or maybe start an after-school club where lots of kids provide “a good wrecking crew.” You just never know what you can make, learn, or do when you discover “the genius of take it apart.”

Through polished rhymes full of verve, permission, and inspiration, Katey Howes stirs up excitement for uninhibited, hands-on learning that allows readers to tinker, make connections, and have “Ah-Ha!” moments of understanding that can be extrapolated to a multitude of other experiences. Howes’ verses burst with reminders that nature; math, reading, and science; crafts such as building, sewing, mechanics, and other practical skills are all based on “take-it-apart” and its partner “put-it-together.”

Readers can almost feel the excitement and brimming sense of wonder as a variety of kids unleash their curiosity on a wide range of objects in E.V.’s action-packed illustrations. Early in the story, a little boy frets as his sister pounds on some old bones, but a few pages in he’s happily using the ribcage as a bridge for the contraption he’s built to make his breakfast. His sister, meanwhile, is solving problems around the neighborhood—including a broken birdhouse and mailbox, a leaky hose, and a teddy bear with a torn leg—in E.V.’s clever montages that show the problem and the girl’s thought processes on what steps could be taken to fix it. E.V. also takes kids into a classroom, behind a microscope, underground, and into an unused classroom that becomes an “Imagination Station” to further facilitate their experimentation.

A catalyst for unfettered fun that leads to a lifetime competency in practical skills, Take It Apart is a book kids will absolutely love and is a must for all public, school, and classroom libraries as well as for home collections.

Ages 4 – 9

Carolrhoda Books, 2026 | ISBN 979-8765648568

About the Author

Katey Howes loved writing books for children. She was the award-winning author of the picture books Magnolia Mudd and the Super Jumptastic Launcher Deluxe, Grandmother Thorn, Be a Maker, and Rissy No Kissies which was named a Kirkus Best Children’s Book, a Rise: A Feminist Book Project List book, and a Keystone to Reading Book Award Nominee.

About the Illustrator

Elizabet Vuković grew up around makers in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her mom introduced her to making with fabrics. She and her sister accompanied their dad on many trips to the hardware store for his constant home renovation projects, and her sister continues to use Elizabet as her guinea pig for many outrageous inventions. Elizabet graduated with a degree in optometry before deciding to go back to school for illustration in San Francisco, where she currently resides. Visit her at elizabetvuković.com.

Live Creative Day Activity

Creative Inspiration Box

For young inventors, tinkerers, and crafters, having bits and pieces of this and that as well as some tools to work with all stored in one place encourages creative thinking. Filling the drawers of a tool box or tackle box with items like springs, brads, wheels, hinges, plastic piping, pieces of wood, glue, tape, and simple tools can spark a child’s imagination. Keep an eye out at home or yard sales for these types of small items as well as old objects to disassemble or take your child along to the craft or hardware store and choose items together!

You can purchase Take It Apart from these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

Picture Book Review