Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources encylopedic-knowledge type books for DS5

DS has been carrying around a "Question and Answer Encyclopedia" book by DP Press for a few weeks. He is really into it. It has lots of pictures, but good explanations of questions like how the heart works, how the pyramids were built, why boats float, etc. I'd like to find some other GOOD books of this type. Do not suggest DK or I will whack you with a wet noodle. (Sorry. I just don't like DK. No real narrative, poorly edited, and the content is often not well explained, interesting, or age appropriate. This book is just a lot better than DK.)

We already have The Way Things Work, or whatever that's called.

I love my garage sale find set of child craft how and why library.

I adore How to Clean a Hippopotamus-- not long, but beautifully illustrated and rich in facts.

Have you ever looked at Visual History of the World type books? (http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Visual-History-World/dp/0792236955/ref=pd_sim_b_2 ) National Geographic Books has many of this kind of thing, and they have excellent sales every so often. Too dense for a sustained read for your DS's age, but maybe good to dip into. They have science books too.

I bought a set of 6th-grade science books from Prentice-Hall (got them on Alibris for $1 each) a while back and both my kids have enjoyed them.

Our elder DS at that age was mesmerized by the Guinness Book of World Records-- Scholastic carries bowdlerized versions (still worthy of a pre-look by you).

Will keep thinking.

DeeDee

"The way we work" (the other book by same David Macaulay ;)). DC has read both cover to cover and still comes back to both. (Re. age-appropriateness: there is one illustration on reproduction at the end of the book which you might want to check.)

Unfortunately, I do not know any other books in this category which come even close to these two in quality. I'll try the one you recommended ("QAE").

I love the Usborne books. We have quite a few of them, and they are my favorites. http://www.usborne.com They are very well written, with good illustrations. My kids also liked the Cat in The Hat Learning Library books at age five.

My six year olds LOVE the National Geographic for Kids fact books, especially the "weird but true" books. They have a series called National Geographic Little Kids that are question and answer books.

The Usborne books mentioned are great as well as the National Geographic books. I think back then DS loved some Parragon books (Atlas of the World was one and Earth and Space maybe the other).

Cat in the hat books...we have the map one and the space one...I would check them out from the library. They are cute but twice through was enough for my kids.

I don’t know if you’re interested in single subject books, but "The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics" by Clifford A. Pickover is a wonderful book with beautiful pictures. You can look inside at Amazon. If it the reading level is too advanced yet, "G Is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book" by David M. Schwartz is a good precursor; you can also look inside this book at Amazon.

Thanks!

He is past the Cat in the Hat ones. He has looked at the Nat Geo ones at his sister's school library (about to be his school library!) but is less interested in the brief "wacky facts!" stuff than in "This is how your muscles work," "This is what prehistoric humans looked like" stuff.

Reading level tops out around 5th-6th grade.

Arlen1
DS LOVED that book - all Maccauley actually - but we actually cut that page out of the book - we can't understand how he has never noticed it! But it was just so graphic and explicit and he was 5 when we got him the book. But the science is great!

I have recommended in 10000 threads, the brainwaves books, great science, lots of pictures and facts. DS adored them.

DeHe