Tag Andrew Pettie

Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica

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Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica
Andrew Pettie & Conrad Quilty-Harper, illus.Valentina D’Efilippo
Britannica Books

If you are looking for a book to lure your children away from screens then try this. It’s a weighty, highly visual book absolutely bursting with interesting facts, divided into topics – space, followed by in order land, sea and sky, living planet, animals, the human body and the human world. Before these is a “How to Read This Book’ spread that explains the main ways the infographics organise and present the information. This should start youngsters off on the right track thinking about counting and order, measurement and rules, scale, colour and pattern, position and familiar comparisons.

I turned first to the living planet section and was fascinated to learn some new names that describe both leaf shapes and vein patterns. Some were familiar but not pedate (palmate but with indented lobes) and flabellate (fan shaped). Another new term was arcuate that describes a vein pattern (pinnate but the veins curve towards the leaf margins).

I was astonished to learn that the seed of a rare palm, the coco de mer can weight up to 25 kilos and be as long as 30.5 centimetres. I wouldn’t like that to fall on my head.

Moving on to the animals section, I was intrigued by the information on the ‘smallest known’ page. Did you know that the smallest land mammal, the Etruscan shrew is only 6cm long including its tail or that the nano-chameleon, the smallest reptile is a mere 1.4cm long (not including the tail)?

However, it’s true to say that no matter where you open this bumper book, you are likely to be wowed or amused by something that you read. I’m sure a considerable number of children will enjoy the poo and farts’ spread that includes a presentation of the Bristol Stool Scale with visuals of all seven poo types.
With its eye-catching design, key questions, enticing headings and bite-sized paragraphs, this format should work in all manner of settings and situations both at home and in the classroom. It definitely should be in every school library – primary and secondary; just think of the many ways it might be used.

Listified!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Listified!
Andrew Pettie, illustrated by Andrés Lozano
Britannica Books

This is a cornucopia of a book that is so easy to get totally immersed in that before you know where you are, a couple of hours have gone by.

Divided into eight chapters on various aspects of our world – space, nature, dinosaur times, animals, the body, being human, inventions and game changers – it’s written in a humorous style, and absolutely bursting with amazing, bite size portions of information and I’m sure the majority of adults as well as children will learn a considerable amount.

Did you know for instance that a corned beef sandwich was smuggled onto NASA’s Gemini 3 space mission by astronaut, John Young? I don’t think much of his taste.

On the topic of taste, I was astonished to read in the Being Human chapter that the average person in Switzerland eats 176 chocolate bars in a year while in China, the average person eats a mere two. I wonder where they have better teeth?

There certainly have been some amazing inventions but this book contains 8 of the weirdest ever made. These include a motorised ice-cream cone that automatically rotates your ice-cream to save you having to turn the cone around to lick the ice-cream on the other side – totally bonkers. I know many people rely on their mobiles for lots of things but did you know there’s a mobile that doubles as an electric beard trimmer? Yes really. On the other hand, I might just have to seek out some of the smart underpants I read about as being in development and give a pair to my partner: these measure how much your buttock and leg muscles are moving and then tell you if you need to up your exercise regime.

You really can’t beat nature as designer though: look at these incredible examples of the Fibonacci sequence found in plants.

In all Andrew Pettie has stashed over 300 lists between the covers of this weighty tome, many with quirky illustrations by Andrés Lorenzo; there are also a fair number of photographs too, plus a glossary and index. Love the playful list headings.

Add to family bookshelves (so long as they’re strong enough it carry its weight) to KS2 collections and beyond, and libraries.