Would You Believe...Vatican City is a country?! by Richard Platt
| Would You Believe...Vatican City is a country?! by Richard Platt | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: An enjoyable entry in a very bright and engaging series of trivia and knowledge for the primary school-age child, concerning cities and geography. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 48 | Date: April 2010 |
| Publisher: OUP Oxford | |
| ISBN: 978-0199119707 | |
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Cities don’t just spring up around us. They have taken thousands of years of civilisation to form, however surprising that might appear at times. Conversely, there are some who are just a few hundreds of years old that have been empty for centuries, and others that have been planned over a drawing board and become a capital city in a decade-long instant. All are within these tidy 48 pages.
The only fault I have with this series of books is that they are not quite as tidy as they should be. It is a harder read than it need be, with three font sizes used where one would have done for a child of my generation. It can be very awkward to try and read each double-page spread in chronological order.
But that is a minor fault, and if I had a child interested in the subject matter of any of these ten books I would like them to enjoy a book such as this. It presents its facts in a handy way, via a couple of paragraphs only on each topic, and copious captions for very well-chosen pictures. It does not have any editorial slant, is accurate, very well produced, and covers its ground quickly and surprisingly comprehensively.
The book does not just introduce the child to the fairly obvious concept of the city, but discusses how they have changed through the millennia, and goes into several different aspects of city life, from the services to the concentration of crime some of them have had to much notoriety. I liked very much the list of old names tentatively given the skyscraper phenomenon, such as sky-batterers, and cloud-supporters.
In my limited experience of juvenile non-fiction, I don’t think this range is ideal for the home – I am sure there are further, more comprehensive reads out there on any of the subjects in the series. But for the school librarian, this book and the others I have experienced will, I am sure, handily replace many older volumes, with a perfectly up-to-date and very enjoyable learning experience.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
If this book appeals then young readers might also enjoy Would You Believe...two cyclists invented the aeroplane?! by Richard Platt. You might also enjoy Would You Believe...bed testers get paid to sleep?! by Richard Platt.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Would You Believe...Vatican City is a country?! by Richard Platt at Amazon.com.
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