Review Detail

Facts are presented in a pell mell fashion. Some get an entire page of treatment, and handy dotted lines trail throughout the book, leading from one topic to another. There are also some pages that are a veritable clearing house of facts, with speech bubble or flow chart style boxes cramming lots of facts in a small space. This is a great springboard to further research; when I read the fact about an archaeologist who used dynamite to hasten the excavation of Troy and was surprised that his name wasn't given, I had to do some research and find out that they were referring to Heinrich Schliemann! There is an index, and a list of resources, but this is more of a grab bag of facts rather than something that will help with deep dives.

I'm a huge fan of this type of book, and hadn't seen this Britannica series before, although this is the seventh book in the series of volumes showcasing "crazily connected facts". Perfect for road trips, bugging older siblings, and possibly even breaking a cell phone addiction, this is a fascinating new way to introduce young readers to the wonders of "fun facts" that is a little different from National Geographic Almanacs, since the pages are full of Andy Smith's goofy but informative illustrations rather than glossy photographs, although there are some decorated photographs that are quite fun.