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Chargement... Strange Mysteries from Around the Worldpar Seymour Simon
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Call me crazy, but I adored this book. I liked the topics it covered, it seemed well written for a middle grade book, it let me know about things I didn't know about before, over all I loved it a lot. 5 out of 5 stars. But some of that might be my love of history, so I'm a bit biased. Still, if you like quirky, kind of oddball things, read this book. It'll go quick as it's only just over 60 pages, so sit down, put your feet up, and jump into the land of strange mysteries for a few minutes. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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Describes ten strange natural phenomena and possible explanations for them, including the day it rained frogs, an atomic explosion that occurred forty years before the atom bomb, and an eerie crystal skull. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)001.9Information Computing and Information Knowledge Controversial knowledgeClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Now to the book itself: Simon presents nine “mysteries” in total. Six of them, which rely on newspaper and magazine reports, concern phenomena which have convincing scientific explanations, even if some of the nitty-gritty details haven’t been fully settled. These include—among others—
(1) stories of storms in which fish and frogs have rained down from the sky, sometimes miles away from the nearest body of water
(2) accounts of unusual nighttime lights, which change size and colour and seem to be able to move
(3) reports about about a massive explosion that occurred in Siberia in 1908
(4) a discussion of the experiences of barefooted fire walkers who step on yards of hot coals without receiving burns
I found the three historical mysteries more interesting to read than those related to natural phenomena. The Oak Island treasure, the Mary Celeste “ghost ship”, and the (supposedly Mayan) crystal skull have morphed into tall tales over time. Simon writes them up as longer, coherent narratives, with a plots, casts of characters, and even conflict(s) of a sort. The edition I read, with a copyright of 1997, is now quite dated, and aside from the story of the crystal skull, the “mysteries” remain unsolved. While there is now a better theory about why an undamaged ship was found floating crew-less with its valuable cargo still intact, I’m not sure anyone really believes treasure will ever be found at the bottom of a deep, centuries-old shaft on Oak Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. (A British Columbian Company, Ideon Technologies, and the History Channel are apparently aiming to find out for sure by the end off 2022)
As mentioned, this edition of Simon’s work is now pretty dated and not all of his explanations are likely to be accessible to the intended readership. Nevertheless, the book is still likely to entertain readers aged ten and up. ( )