Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human Endurance by Georgina Phillips
| Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human Endurance by Georgina Phillips | |
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| Category: Trivia | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: Everything from Shackleton to Ellen MacArthur, by way of the Japanese word for fried rice-field grasshopper, and 32 hour long after dinner speeches. Ouch! contains fascinating trivia on every page that children will love to repeat back to you at length. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 86 | Date: April 2008 |
| Publisher: Macmillan | |
| ISBN: 978-0330454056 | |
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You probably know about Amundsen and Scott, possibly know about Shackleton, and maybe even about Thor Heyerdahl in the Kon-Tiki. I bet you don't know about Baron Alexander von Humboldt eating ants as he journeyed along the Orinoco, Jackie Bibby holding 8 poisonous snakes in his mouth, or Tony Wright staying awake for 266 hours. Ouch! is packed full of fascinating tales of endurance and extremes. Each ranges from a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages. Whilst it's perfect for dipping in and out of, it's so interesting that you'll end up devouring every last page in one sitting.
The cartoons are quirky, and break the text up nicely, but are never overbearing. The writing style is engaging and fun, whilst still packing in plenty of facts. There are tables comparing modern life with bygone days, which prevent the book from being an endless set of stories.
Two things disappointed me with Ouch!: the Ring a Ring o' Roses plague myth is perpetuated, and David Blaine's stunts are treated as straight up survivalist feats. I'll freely admit I'm a pedant, and I know I shouldn't really care about such things. Anyway, as there was an interesting bit of new trivia round the corner, I didn't hurl the book into the fire in outrage.
Ouch! is an excellent book of trivia, primarily aimed at newly confident readers, although it will interest older children (and haggard reviewers). There are enough mentions of unpleasant things like frostbite to enthrall the wide-eyed young reader, but nothing that even the most squeamish of parents could object to. A fantastic addition to any family's bookshelf.
Thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
If you liked Ouch! you'll also like Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy and How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human Endurance by Georgina Phillips at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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