A Horrid Factbook: Food by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
| A Horrid Factbook: Food by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A food and slightly anarchic look at food by our favourite rascal. Read it first and you won't be shockedat what emerges at the table. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 112 | Date: July 2012 |
| Publisher: Orion Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1444006339 | |
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For a horrid child our Henry has acquired a lot of facts, you know and the latest of his Horrid Fact Books is about food. It follows the usual format of quick-fire facts liberally accompanied by brilliant illustrations from Tony Ross. The book's divided into chapters which are just the right length to appeal to the emerging reader and to give a regular feel-good buzz when there's another chapter under the belt. With ninety-nine pages of text there's enough to give the sense of having read a book but without it being too much of a trial. It ticks all the boxes as an early reader.
The facts are all delivered in neat packages - but they're not the ones an adult would expect with regard to food. They are the ones that kids love. There's the nod to what's right and proper with Perfect Peter's Fab Fruit and Virtuous Veg (see how the vocabulary is being gently extended there?) but then we move on to such subjects as Fast Food, Weird Restaurants, Mad Myths and Biggest, Longest, Hottest, Smelliest... - which is, of course, the one where the print will be read off the page.
The virtuous veg apart it's not a book which is about promoting the virtues of healthy eating. A lot of the stories I was fed as a child (eat your crusts and it'll make your hair curl - I mean why? I wanted STRAIGHT hair!) are unceremoniously debunked and hurrah to that. The background to the benefits of eating carrot is explained in a very simple way. Hurrah to that too. It's educational, but done in a very gentle, unobtrusive way.
You might find that there's a benefit in reading the book first - it won't take long. There's nothing in there that you wouldn't want your child to read but some of the more disgusting facts (hint: there are insect legs in most chocolate bars - and that' one of the nicer facts) will undoubtedly be regurgitated at meal times. Knowing about them won't make them any pleasanter but it will remove the shock value. This is definitely not a if it tastes nice, spit it out book about food.
Go on - you know you want to. It's great fun.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
For more facts from Henry we can recommend his thought on sport or for a real grossing out there's always his nuggets of information on bodies.
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You can read more book reviews or buy A Horrid Factbook: Food by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy A Horrid Factbook: Food by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross at Amazon.com.
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