Weird but true! 2023 - National Geographic Kids

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PUBLISHER: National Geographic Kids

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction
RATING: 4.5 stars.

An informative + entertaining collection for trivia lovers.

Remember your childhood encyclopaedias? I always loved flipping through the pages looking at the photos and the captions. However, I hated the teeny font size and the overload of information in each paragraph. I also enjoyed picture books on animals and other topics from nature and science as these covered information in bite-sized nuggets. But many of these books had illustrations instead of actual photographs, thereby spoiling my experience.

‘Weird but true!’ solves these issues by taking the best of both worlds. The text is present in minimal words, keeping the focus firmly on the trivia itself instead of detailed explanations. The book also contains actual photographic evidence for almost every single fact and trivia it contains. This makes the book fun as well as easy-going.

The book covers a wide range of topics such as animals, sports, architecture, environment, earth and space, human body, fruits and vegetables, and even unusual topics such as optical illusions and treasure hunts. As the title suggests, the focus is on the ‘weird’. As such, the facts are all wacky in some way or the other, from silly to amusing to outright bizarre! While the topics are organised, the grouping is not always in the typical subject-wise clusters, thereby creating some surprises as you flip along.

Definitely recommended. This remarkable book will definitely be a great addition to your children’s fun fact collection. Not only will your child read loads of mind-boggling trivia, but also encounter these in a reader-friendly layout, within minimal mental overload. It would make for a perfect gift as well. (Don’t the colours on the cover look Christmassy?)

My thanks to Collins Reference and NetGalley for the DRC of “Weird but true! 2023”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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