interesting ( )

interesting ( )

This fun, colorfully illustrated book is part of a series that kids love. This book is filled with random facts that kids will love to share aloud. Did you know that a dog's nose print is as unique as a human finger print? Or that it's possible to smell scent in your dreams? With 4- 6 facts per two page spread, this book will keep even reluctant readers occupied for hours. There are facts about animals, planets, food, humans and more. There is no specific category rather this book is a unique type of concept book where none of the facts relate to the others! ( )

This may be marketed for kids, but I didn't know most of this stuff either.

Such as this giant pizza some guys made (for what reason? fame? party?) in a supermarket in South Africa of all places. I googled it and the picture is impressive. But the book makes it more simple than it needs to be, saying "A supermarket in South Africa created a pizza that was 122 feet, 8 inches across and weighed as much as two male African elephants." That's all good and such, but why not list the actual weight of the pizza too then? My friend Google says the pizza weighed 26, 883 pounds. I guess that may be as much as two African elephants, although I don't feel like looking it up further.

See it as kind of the kid version of a mixture of Guiness book of world records trivia, Ripley's believe or not snippets, and some science reminders from school (i.e. light travels faster than sound. Duh.)

Some things make sense and aren't a surprise, just something I never thought about - such as "Some frogs glow when they eat fireflies." Ew, but kind of cool. Want to see that now, although poor firefly.
But then there's the irritating facts that shouldn't be in there at all:

"The largest pencil is about as long as seven crocodiles."

What does this even mean? First, how long were the crocodiles? The statement is so nonsensical and incomplete that it shouldn't be put in as any kind of fact. Crocodiles obviously come in massive sizes, so was this pencil over 100 feet? Or were these baby crocodiles and it was one of those dorky novelty giant pencils we bought in the store as kids?

There's some new life lessons in here I need to try to remember -

"Scents smell better through your right nostril than your left one."

Interesting since I have a horrible sense of smell and can't pick up subtle nuances of perfume or lotions at Bath and Body works with my friends. I'll have to remember to inhale in the right nostril from now on. If only that would actually help...

"Eating shrimp can turn white flamginos pink." - Strange, and why? Must google later.

"A cornflake shaped like the U.S state of Illinois sold for $1, 350." - Pathetic.

Overall some interesting stuff in here, National Geographic for Kids displayed it all in a creative and colorful manner, and it's decently thick (200 small pages) to give kids and silly adults enough to ponder. ( )

I love Weird but True books. I like learning fascinating facts about basically everything. You also learn a lot from Weird but True books and sometimes that information is helpful. ( )