Difference between revisions of "Newest Children's Non-Fiction Reviews"
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| + | |author=Lewis Helfand and Lalit Kumar Sharma | ||
| + | |title=World War Two: Under the Shadow of the Swastika (Campfire Graphic Novels) | ||
| + | |rating=4 | ||
| + | |genre=Children's Non-Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=One of the most common subjects at primary school, getting on for three generations since it happened, is of course World War Two. It has the impact that sixty million dead people deserve – but only if it's taught correctly. One of the ways to present it is this book, which comes from a slightly surprising place – an Indian publisher completely new to me – but succeeds in being remarkably competent, complete and really quite readable. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9381182140</amazonuk> | ||
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|author=Chris Packham and Jason Cockroft | |author=Chris Packham and Jason Cockroft | ||
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|summary=Egypt. It's up there with dinosaurs, space travel and not much else that can hold a young child throughout the length of their school career. Considering a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest in, or even a hatred for, history, it all was relevant a long, long time ago – and with Carter's finding of King Tut's tomb closing in on its centenary it won't go away yet. There are indeed books that solely concern themselves with the history of our love affair with Egypt. But I guess it does boil down to it being introduced by a fine teacher. Whether this latest book will supplant the human in giving us all the lessons we need remains to be seen. | |summary=Egypt. It's up there with dinosaurs, space travel and not much else that can hold a young child throughout the length of their school career. Considering a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest in, or even a hatred for, history, it all was relevant a long, long time ago – and with Carter's finding of King Tut's tomb closing in on its centenary it won't go away yet. There are indeed books that solely concern themselves with the history of our love affair with Egypt. But I guess it does boil down to it being introduced by a fine teacher. Whether this latest book will supplant the human in giving us all the lessons we need remains to be seen. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782402373</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782402373</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 11:55, 14 January 2016
World War Two: Under the Shadow of the Swastika (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Lewis Helfand and Lalit Kumar Sharma
One of the most common subjects at primary school, getting on for three generations since it happened, is of course World War Two. It has the impact that sixty million dead people deserve – but only if it's taught correctly. One of the ways to present it is this book, which comes from a slightly surprising place – an Indian publisher completely new to me – but succeeds in being remarkably competent, complete and really quite readable. Full review...
Amazing Animal Journeys by Chris Packham and Jason Cockroft
It's only relatively recently that man has actually moved home at certain points of the year to take advantage of the weather or the availability of food, but wild life has been doing it for much longer and every year billions of animals move from one part of the planet to another - that's birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects. This is known as migration - and it's a real pleasure to see it used other than in the context of sensationalist newspaper headlines. Wildlife expert Chris Packham has written this introduction to the subject and it's been beautifully illustrated by Jason Cockroft. (He's the man who did the cover artwork for the final three Harry Potter books!) Full review...
Ultimate Reptileopedia by Christina Wilsdon
Have you ever wanted to know more about reptiles? Scratch that. Have you ever wanted to seemingly know everything that there ever was to know about reptiles? If so, you don't just need a normal encyclopaedia that will have a page or two on the subject, but a Reptileopedia that has more information and images of reptiles in it than you could shake a snake at. Full review...
The Drop in My Drink by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady
This brilliant book tells the story of where water comes from in a wonderfully captivating way. In full colour picture book style, it does far more than explain scientific facts about our planet, the way life has evolved and where our water comes from. It takes the reader on an inspiring, exciting and eye-opening journey through millions of years – the same journey one little drop of water in one child' cup may have taken! Full review...
L is for London by Paul Thurlby
I spend a lot of time in London for work, and we tend to walk to a lot of our destinations which works out quite well since London days are long days and long days tend not to include time for the gym. But, as you walk from Euston to Waterloo or Elephant and Castle, you also get to see a lot of a wonderful city. I've never lived there, but I feel like every week I know it a little better. This book is London all over and whether you live elsewhere in the UK or further afield, it's a fantastic way to learn more about the place. Full review...
Timeline by Peter Goes
Tick followed tock followed tick followed tock. Once, that is, we'd got over the Big Bang, which of course was silent. We flash forwards a few billion years to the creation of the earth, have a quick look at prehistory, then it's in with the world's happenings we can be sure of and date accurately. This book makes an attempt at conveying it all along one river of time – albeit with many tributaries – and with a strong visual style points us to all that is important about our past along the way. Flick through it backwards and you can recreate a different Guinness advert to the one I quoted – but it's probably worth a much longer look. Full review...
Everything Space (National Geographic Kids Everything) by Helaine Becker and Brendan Mullan
It has to be said that too many children habitually want to be involved in the dangerous jobs – firefighter, sportsman, pilot, racing car driver, astronaut. Yes, looking up at the Milky Way or seeing planets and suns drift around in planetariums or movies seems particularly benign, but you have to bear in mind astronauts have to face severe G-force pressures when they take off, put themselves into the hands of thousands of scientists, engineers and so on to keep them safe, and face a lot when they do get out there. It seems it's just another job a child should be safely steered away from aspiring to. Luckily there is both so much we know about space, and so much we have yet to learn, that they can have a satisfying life in that world from a cosy room in an observatory. Books like this are designed to be the first step through those doors – a primer in all things from the biggest galactic clusters to the tiniest particles of dark matter. Full review...
Everything Space (National Geographic Kids Everything) by Helaine Becker and Brendan Mullan
It has to be said that too many children habitually want to be involved in the dangerous jobs – firefighter, sportsman, pilot, racing car driver, astronaut. Yes, looking up at the Milky Way or seeing planets and suns drift around in planetariums or movies seems particularly benign, but you have to bear in mind astronauts have to face severe G-force pressures when they take off, put themselves into the hands of thousands of scientists, engineers and so on to keep them safe, and face a lot when they do get out there. It seems it's just another job a child should be safely steered away from aspiring to. Luckily there is both so much we know about space, and so much we have yet to learn, that they can have a satisfying life in that world from a cosy room in an observatory. Books like this are designed to be the first step through those doors – a primer in all things from the biggest galactic clusters to the tiniest particles of dark matter. Full review...
Doctor Who: The Colouring Book by Various Artists
In my youth colouring books were popular for children: they helped to teach some valuable skills. But teachers, 'experts', thought that they stifled creativity and once you'd mastered being able to stick within the lines they were whisked away as being 'childish' and you were restricted to artistic completion of maps in geography or illustrations of experiments in science. The fact that colouring could be relaxing and fun had been forgotten. Fortunately times have changed: adults are encouraged to relax with one of the hundreds of colouring books now available and I'm delighted to see a resurgence of the idea for not just the youngest children but for those who're a bit older too. Full review...
Style Guide: Fashion From Head to Toe by Natasha Slee and Becca Stadtlander
In Style Guide: Fashion from Head to Toe we have a guided tour through fashion from the eighteen nineties to about 2010, taking a decade or so at a time and exploring several aspects of each decade. For instance the period 1890 to 1914 is divided into The Belle Epoque, Out and About and The Orient. Each division has a picture to be coloured but rather than being a picture of one garment, there's a montage of garments and accessories from the period: The Orient has eight different pictures - of the triangle bag, a fur-trimmed shawl, kimono, pleated gown, a folding fan, a Ballet Russes costume and slippers and finally a turban. On the reverse of each picture is a key. The article is numbered on the main picture and in the corresponding key you'll find some historical information and some colour details. Full review...
Stampy's Lovely Book by Joseph Garrett
If you still think of Stampy as the elephant in The Simpsons, you need to get with it. For one thing, TV is so last century – now it's all about Minecraft and other computer game worlds, and often second-screening between different new media at the same time. So why does this book from a Youtube star of Minecraft tasks, pranks and other activities, remind me of a certain TV programme that used to invite us to turn off and do something more active instead? Full review...
The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps! by Gabrielle Balkan and Sol Linero
I've often shouted at people on UK quiz programmes for their ignorance of geography about their nation. People just don't seem to have learnt about or been to other areas of the place they call home. But while they get little sympathy from me when they lose the programme's cash prize, I can imagine that it would be much harder for them if they actually lived in a large country, such as the USA. 50 whole states of different size, all with a rich history of their own, their own famous places and their own noted people – the facts involved in absorbing all that's relevant would take a lot of research – or, paradoxically, this handy child-friendly book. Full review...
Draw It! Colour It! Creatures by Axel Scheffler, Emily Gravett et al
Colouring books for adults are all the rage at the moment and it's too easy to forget that adults are not the only ones who benefit from the calming, soothing therapy of colouring or the improvement in hand-eye co-ordination which comes with practice. Children's picture books have tended to be flimsier and not put together with quite such panache or by such well-known names, but we now have a children's colouring book to bridge the gap. Draw It! Colour It! Creatures has projects from 43 artists, well known in the field of children's book illustration, all packed together in a stylish book with flaps so that you're not going to lose your place. Full review...
Diary of a Time Traveller by David Long and Nicholas Stevenson
With the usual complaint that 'History is Boring!', Augustus slumps over his school desk – until his teacher, a certain Professor Tempo, comes to his aid. She gives him a notebook and yellow pencil and says he should imagine himself in a place in the past to see how interesting it actually could be. And lo and behold he's there, seeing the world of the past's effect on the world of the present for his very own eyes. He ends up doing this more than a couple dozen times, filling the notebook with amazing sights he's seen and people he's stood alongside, from Mozart to Einstein, from Chaucer to Lincoln, and what we read is what he comes up with in this brisk and colourful volume. Full review...
The School of Art: Learn How To Make Great Art With 40 Simple Lessons by Teal Triggs and Daniel Frost
Written with an interesting approach, this book treats the reader as a new art student to The School of Art. The five professors of the school take the student through 40 different lessons, looking at a huge range of ideas right from how to draw a line, perspective and proportion, composition and aesthetics. Aimed probably at senior school children it could, however, also be used by older primary children who are particularly interested in art, and if you were working through the book with your child then a younger child could also try out some of the lesson ideas and suggestions. Full review...
Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky by Adam Ford
If an innovative book and a beautiful piece of art got together and had offspring, the result would probably look a lot like an Ivy Press publication. This publisher never ceases to impress and their books are the kind of ones that you keep to pass onto subsequent generations. With this in mind, I was excited to receive a lovely children's book called Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky for review, which invites families to explore the cosmos from your own backyard. Would it live up to the standard of its predecessors? I was getting starry-eyed in anticipation... Full review...
Brain Twisters: The Science of Thinking and Feeling by Clive Gifford and Professor Anil Seth
Meet the brain. We all have one. We all use it (and by 'it' I mean a heck of a lot more of it than the 10% of urban myth) every second of the day. We engage with different parts of it for balance, catching a ball, memorising a list of moves in controlling a video game character, or understanding things ranging from written instruction to body language. It's such a vital part of the body, taking up 20% of our glucose fuel intake as well as of oxygen, that understanding of it cannot come at too young an age. But in this varied and complex book, looking at a varied and complex subject, I do wonder if the right approach has been taken at all times. Full review...
The Wonder Garden: Wander through the world's wildest habitats and discover more than 80 amazing animals by Jenny Broom and Kristjana S Williams
Is it any wonder that this book calls the outside world The Wonder Garden? I know things in fiction books, on TV and in games can be fabulous, but can they compete – really – with what nature has presented? You only need a gate through which to go, and a willingness to explore. This book provides those gates – there they are, shining luxuriously on the cover of this jumbo-sized hardback. And in five easy-to-take steps, the rest of the book provides for that exploration, taking us down south in Amazonia, down below the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and up – to deserts and mountains, via Germany's own Black Forest. And the trip is nothing if not spectacular to look at. Full review...
City Atlas: Discover the world with 30 city maps by Martin Haake and Georgia Cherry
It's not every time I mention the feel of the book I'm reviewing, but this time it's worth a mention. This volume has been lavishly presented in a roughened card cover, as opposed to the gloss of others in this format from this publisher, and so looks and feels like an old stamp catalogue. The title image is indeed a stamp, stuck on the centre of the cover. And just as all stamps the world over are practically the same yet completely different in design, so are the world's cities. The point of this book is to bring the common elements as well as the unique features of all the world's capitals to the fore, to show that while a city may be a city is a city, their constant variety is what makes each and every one worth a visit. With that being on the costly side, this is a decent enough substitute. Full review...
Dino Dinners by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
Ask most children if dinosaurs are cool and you will get an emphatic – Yes! The thought that giant looming monsters once roamed the Earth, fighting and eating eat one other, sounds exciting. It is important to encourage this enthusiasm and there are loads of books that are full of dinosaur facts, but are there any full of dinosaur fun as well? Full review...
On the Construction Site by Carron Brown and Bee Johnson
Building buildings in the topic of this interactive book that shows construction from plans to completion. For the right little boy (or girl) it will no doubt be a hit. Full review...
The Self-Esteem Team's Guide to Sex, Drugs and WTFs?!! by The Self-Esteem Team
Did you know that there are (on average) three children in every British classroom who are self-harming? Or that 48% of teenage girls avoid everyday school activities because of a lack of body confidence?
Shocking, isn't it? Full review...
Favourite Deadly Facts by Steve Backshall
Many people have wondered what limbo must feel like. I for one think it will be like being trapped on a long car journey with an enthusiastic child clasping a bumper book of facts. There is nothing quite like a book about how long, how short or how wide something is to put a certain type of child in clover. This type of book should come with a warning sticker on the front as any nearby adult is going to get their ear talked off, especially if it is a bumper fact book. Full review...
Woolly Mammoth by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
The Ice Age is a fascinating time, but do you think that dinosaurs still roamed the Earth alongside both man and mammoths? Ray Harryhausen has a lot to answer for and the earlier that someone learns that man and dinosaurs did not walk the land together, the better. Plus everyone knows that Woolly Mammoths are almost as cool as T-Rex – who doesn't love a hairy elephant? Full review...
A Horrid Factbook: Crazy Creatures by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
The perceived wisdom is that it is harder to get young boys to read than it is young girls, but you try telling that to my nephews. They often have their heads so far in a book that their nose sticks out the other end. However, whilst one loves fiction, the other loves fact. If you think about it, you could use an extremely popular fiction character to tell children some real facts and trick them; but that would be a horrible thing to do. Full review...
William Shakespeare: Scenes from the life of the world’s greatest writer by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
Sumptuously and appealingly illustrated, this imaginative and innovative approach to the life of William Shakespeare uses quirky comic strip style speech bubbles while also paying tribute to some of his most famous plays. Occasionally losing focus in the order of scenes from his life, which is why it’s not quite a 5 star review, it is still an entertaining and insightful introduction to the bard of Stratford upon Avon. This book includes maps, a bibliography, a glossary and quotations from the bard’s plays. Full review...
Born Free Lion Rescue: The True Story of Bella and Simba by Sara Starbuck
Bella was not supposed to be worked as a youngster as a model for holidaymakers' photos on the Black Sea Coast, but that probably happened before she ended up in a poor Romanian zoo, blind in one eye and losing the sight in the other. Simba was not supposed to be shaking his magnificent maned figure about a circus cage in southern France. But she was, and he was, and things weren't right. Luckily, the zoo was too poor to operate, and people were already on hand to relocate the animals, and fortunately someone realised the circus was a no-starter as well, when it comes to keeping a fully-grown lion in captivity. In alternating chapters the two cats' tales eventually combine to one, in this great little read with a heart-warming message. Full review...
Mad About Monkeys by Owen Davey
Of all the many millions of animals on our planet that deserve a large format hardback non-fiction book, I guess monkeys are one of the ideal places to start. They are, of course, our distant cousins, with the ancestor we have in common with them walking around our world within the past thirty million years. They have a large range across the planet, they have over 250 variant species, and they have a lot of interesting facts and details regarding their social life, their diet, their diversity and their potential future – all of which makes this an interesting read whatever your species bias may be. Full review...
Ancient Egypt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half a Minute (Children's 30 Second) by Cath Senker and Melvyn Evans
Egypt. It's up there with dinosaurs, space travel and not much else that can hold a young child throughout the length of their school career. Considering a lot of them will grow up declaring they have no interest in, or even a hatred for, history, it all was relevant a long, long time ago – and with Carter's finding of King Tut's tomb closing in on its centenary it won't go away yet. There are indeed books that solely concern themselves with the history of our love affair with Egypt. But I guess it does boil down to it being introduced by a fine teacher. Whether this latest book will supplant the human in giving us all the lessons we need remains to be seen. Full review...
