Epic Factopia is the latest in a popular information book series. The premise of the series is that the facts in each books are linked together in one long trail of trivia. Each fact has something in common with the fact preceding it and the fact that comes after. This book spans a wide variety of topics and the facts are all about extremes – extreme height, extreme jobs, extreme ability etc.
The trail of facts can be followed from start to finish. but there are also shortcuts. Questions such as ‘Even braver?’ lead readers to a new page number, allowing them to go where their curiosity guides them. A contents page at the start divides the book up by topic and allows it to be used for research which is an excellent addition to this volume.
Some of my favourite facts from Epic Factopia include that a factory in Bahrain created an Oreo cookie 6000 times larger than the original, that on the rare occasions sea anemones move they perform very slow somersaults in the water, and that a man walked around the entire world in seven years.
Bright and bold illustrations, coupled with photographs, help the reader to imagine the facts but also make them laugh! These illustrations are brilliant for readers who want to dip in and and out of the book because they can flick through the pages until they see something interesting and then stop to read the accompanying fact.
Britannica Books are the masters of children’s information texts and it comes from many years of producing them. I think they show an inherent understanding of the many ways in which children access information and of the different stages children go through when learning about and interacting with non-fiction texts. The Factopia series is fantastic for all lovers of trivia, but is particularly suited to children who are at an age when they read fluently enough to gather facts but where linking them into an argument or to a wider topic might be a skill that they are still developing. The ‘follow the trail’ game also makes them lovely for children to share – with each other and with their adults.
Epic Factopia is guaranteed to grab young readers’ attentions and to make them say ‘wow’! It keeps fun at the centre of learning new facts.
- Epic Factopia by Rose Davidson, Illustrated by Andy Smith, is available now from Britannica Books (RRP. £10.99) Thank you for my review copy that was provided as part of a promotional blog tour.
