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Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Handy Answer Book for Kids (and Parents)

by Gina Misiroglu

This book is chock full of questions kids might ask and simple short answers to those questions.  Let me share an example:
How much air does a person breathe in a lifetime?  During a person's ife, he or she will breathe about 75 million gallons (284 liters) of air.  Every minute, the human body need 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of air when lying down, 4 gallons when sitting, 6 gallons when walking and 12 gallons or more when running.
I could see using a gallon of milk to show the comparison.  Amazing - 4 gallons of air per minute to just sit here at my computer.  Let's keep that air clean!

If your family was watching The Amazing Race last Sunday you could have quickly looked up the world's tallest building - the Burj Dubai, located in the United Arab Emirates.  Or when Pres. Obama received the Nobel Price and your child asked what the Nobel Price is you could find a short answer in this book.

Did you know the largest nut weighs 44 lbs and takes 6-7 years to mature?  Have your kids ever asked what worms eat?  You can find the answer on p. 77.

Questions are listed in different chapters.  Here's a list of the chapters:
Outer Space
Planet Earth & Our Moon
Creatures Big and Small
Plant Life
People Around the World
Politics & Government
How Things Work
Math, Measurement & Time
All About My Body
Daily Life

There's an index at the back to help you find a specific item.

I'm very impressed with this book and can see it making a good  gift for the curious kids (and parents) in your life.  And what a helpful volume to have in the home schooling library.  As a former teacher, I can see kids using this book as a springboard of ideas for science fairs, research papers, etc.  Very helpful.

8 comments:

Britt said...

Oh I have a feeling I'm going to be needing this book in the next couple of years...
For some reason kids tend to not believe that mom or dad honestly doesn't know the answer to their questions!

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) said...

We love the Handy Answer books. I think we have the Physics one and a Dinosaur one and possibly another science-related one. They are awesome!!

Framed said...

This may be something I should give to Stacey and Jordan. It could come in handy.

Hazra said...

My parents didn't have a Handy Book but something similar, some Monster Book of Everything (or some title like that, I honestly don't remember!). I used to read one article per day or something, then pester my dad to tell me more!

Zibilee said...

I think my kids would love this, especially my daughter, who seems to always be asking a question. Great review on this one. I am thinking of picking it up for the holidays.

Kristen said...

My kids have a million and one questions and always have so I love books like this.

Staci said...

My 14-year-old would love this book. He already asks us enough crazy questions as it is!!

Les said...

This sounds like the perfect Christmas gift for my nephew. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Booklogged.