A visual and informative showpiece.
Are you stuck for a unique Christmas gift this year?
This appealing encyclopedia for kids is both informative and beautifully illustrated. Full of commonly asked questions, with answers typed underneath, Everything Under the Sun contains a vast amount of knowledge within its 250 pages. It is the perfect gift for primary school-aged children.
It contains 12 parts (chapters), which are labelled as the months of the year. Within each of these chapters is a question for each day of that month to share together with your child, or for your curious child to read for themselves, so as to “learn something new each day”.
All the questions listed are the typical types of questions that parents or guardians are often asked by their children. However, as they are such everyday topics, most people probably long ago stopped wondering about their answers. Examples of questions include, “How do wheels go round?” or “How does yoga help you to relax?” We may know that wheels go round or that yoga helps you to relax, but can we answer why, off the top of our heads?
It is for this reason the book is a nice one to share. It can be read chronologically or used as a reference guide. Each month lists all its questions, so if you are asked something in particular, you could quickly scan the two pages of the start of each month/chapter to see if the answer lies within. This is a lot more captivating than an internet search! The book is a delight to feel with its thick silky pages.
The hardback cover is eye-catching in a way that is naturally appealing to kids and the illustrations continue throughout, with each question visually displayed. Sometimes there is a theme, for example the first three days (or questions listed) for September are all about gorillas and as such, gorillas are displayed on both pages.
Other times, there are completely different topics, yet each topic has an accompanying captivating picture. What is also enticing about this book is that the name of each child that asked the question is listed, and the expert panel also includes artists, poets and thinkers. Finally, the many artists that contributed to the works are listed at the back.
It would be suited to children in primary school, or for ages 4-12 years based on both the content and the artwork. Everything Under the Sun is based on its Podcast, which won a bronze medal at the British Podcast Awards for Best Family Podcast.
Reviewed by Rebecca Wu
Distributed by: Penguin Books Australia
Released: September 2021
RRP: $39.99
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
More News
