There was a book from around  entitled The way things work I believe it was first published in German as spellingWie functunert das In many ways it is similar to the later book and usees cartoons stick figures to demonstrate certain principles While presumably aimed at the novice I would not say it is a childrens book I have to wonder if this book was the inspiration for the more recent one If anyone else is familiar with this book it might be helpful to have a disambiguation or a separate page