Rated By Kids

Paperback
235 x 159mm
256 pages
ISBN 9780756658236
22 Dec 2009
Dorling Kindersley
7 - 12 years

About the book:

Bringing together the best of the DK Guides series, Everything on Earth is an absorbing survey of our planet and its wildlife, with an emphasis on the extreme-from hurricanes to coral reefs, glaciers to crocodiles. Providing just enough detail to fascinate children without confusing or overloading them, Everything on Earth supplies a solid grounding in its subject, picks out the most awe-inspiring details, and inspires readers to explore further.

To conclude our Earth Day inspired week at Rated By Kids, I want to share with you Everything on Earth. From my inital browse through it, I knew this would be another great offering from DK. The vivid pictures blew me away.

As you may have read, I've pulled together guest reviewers this week, but with Everything on Earth, I did a little experiment. My nephews (Carson, 3 1/2 yrs and Nolan, 2 1/2 years), flipped through the book looking for there favourite things (lions and trucks); fortunately there are beautiful pics of lions, but sadly, for Nolan, no trucks, lol.

Then I kind of left this book lying around at home and at work to see what others (family & freinds) thought. Everyone that picked it up and looked through it said things like, "Wow!" and "This is a very cool book!" And, you'll have to take my word on this, but these are people that all have very different interests.

It's divided into 5 sections: Earth, Weather, Oceans, Mammals, and Birds. Then it breaks down these sections into smaller, very interesting, parts. For example, under the Earth section it talks about Volcanoes, Glaciers, Global Ecosystems, etc. Or, in the Oceans section, it talks about Sandy Shores, Coral Reefs, Marine Migrations, etc. This is just a taste of what is in this book. Each section is completed with jam packed data tables and a list of websites to visit for more information.

For me, I can see that Everything on Earth would be an expansive reference for kids doing school projects. As you can see above, it's been rated for 7-12 year olds, which I think is a good rating based on the reading level. But, I'm going to personally redefine that age rating from 4 to infinity! This book has mass appeal, especially for those who watch Discovery Channel or other nature related programs. I don't count myself as one of these, but the content of this book mesmerized me. My fave parts were under the weather category showing the different types of storms, especially lightning and the crazy photo of a hurricane from a satelite (?) perspective. Do yourself a big favour and check this fantastic book out!

Happy reading!
Jackie (and a myriad of experimental subjects :-)