Kids love to know about records! Little pieces of information about randomness always holds their attention! Recordmania: Atlas of the Incredible, the atlas that pushes the limits is a fun addition to the family bookshelf.
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Little Gestalten kindly sent us a copy of Recordmania: Atlas of the Incredible to review and the children have been having fun flipping through the oversized pages and learning incredible facts about all kinds of things around the world.
Contents of Recordmania
- Smallest and Biggest
- Lightest and Heaviest
- Slowest and Fastest
- Shortest and Longest
- Quietest and Loudest
- Coldest and Hottest
Subcategories
Within each of the main categories you’ll find records about some very popular topics for children:
- Dinosaurs
- Animals
- Humans
- Architecture
- Technology
- Astronomy
- Nature
- Sports
As you can see, this oversized book contains a lot of information that children will find interesting. I should point out that although this is a large book (about A3 in size), it’s not too thick at 46 pages. This means that it’s not to heavy for small hands to handle.
Graphics
Rather than use photographs, Recordmania uses bespoke icon illustrations. If you’ve read other books from Little Gestalten, you’ll be familiar with their style; if you’re not already acquainted, then you can see them here in our pictures of the book’s interior.
Interesting Records
One record that happened to catch my eye was linked to my hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan. It does have a few fun records, but this one was new to me…the largest fossilised T-Rex dung pile (20″ wide coprolite) is there! It’s in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which we’ll have to visit again on our next trip home (read about a previous visit to the museum here). You can see by Tristan’s face, he wasn’t quite sure what to make with this piece of information!
While I lived in Japan I was able to visit the 4 great buddhas, but now I’m disappointed that I didn’t see the heaviest statue of a deity, a bronze daibutsu in Ushiku, just a short trip from Ueno station in Tokyo.
What is the record for breath-holding? It’s cuvier’s beaked whale, which can spend two hours and 18 minutes underwater! Wowzers!
Great To Get Kids Reading
Recordmania is packed full of information, but yet there’s not a lot of actual text as the majority of the page space is taken up with graphics. The text is given in short sentences and using lots of arrows, diagrams, and other ways of revealing information without heavy reading. This could mean that if your child loves facts but is a reluctant reader, they may take an interest in this book. Flip through it ahead of time and then casually ask them a question or two about some of the records – they may not even notice that you are enticing them to read.
Recordmania is a book that won’t be completed in one sitting, but will be returned to time and again as children’s curiosity are piqued. This book has also come in handy for homeschooling, too, just as The Illustrated Atlas of Architeture and Marvelous Monuments has been used in many of the children’s classes over the past two year.
Recordmania: Atlas of the Incredible can be purchased through:
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Here are some additional Little Gestalten Books we’ve reviewed that you may be interested in:
