DK Makes Reading Fun For Kids

My entire life, I grew up hoping and dreaming of a home library much like the one that Beast gifts to Belle in The Beauty and the Beast. My love of books hasn't waivered as I've gotten older, and while I don't have a library to rival Belle's, I do have a small collection for myself. My children, unfortunately, haven't developed the same affection for reading as I did, and its a struggle to get them to open a book that doesn't involve farts or funny words. While they don't have a love for chapter books, they have developed a fascination for books that have facts about the world and the creatures on it. For the best in non-fiction books, DK is where you'll want to go. They offer the most popular subjects in formats that both children and adults will enjoy. DK was founded in London in 1974 and is now the world's leading illustrated reference publisher and part of Penguin Random House, formed on July 1, 2013. DK publishes highly visual, photographic non-fiction for adults and children.  DK produces content for consumers in over 87 countries and 62 languages, with offices in Delhi, London, Melbourne, Munich, New York and Toronto. We were recently offered a chance to check out a couple of DK's new educational books, Dinosaur A to Z and Explanatorium of Nature, and much like the Big-Eyed Tree Frog, we jumped at the chance.

 Dinosaur A to Z is perfect for dinosaur fans ages 5 and up. Each page lists dinosaurs you know and love (and maybe even some you don't know yet) in alphabetical order. What separates this book from all of the other dinosaur fact books out there is the stunning detail they put into making a book that is interesting enough to catch a young child's eye, and still filled with enough information to teach an adult reader a few new things. They give you picture scales to show you the size of each dinosaur compared to the other dinosaurs, and even to things like a chicken, a dog, a horse, or a child. Each dinosaur is given a color code to show you which period they lived in such as Triassic or Cretaceous. They have also included some creatures that lived around the same time and are still important to learn about but were not actually dinosaurs. As you travel through the alphabet, the book offers a few "pauses" in between the dinosaurs to talk about the habitats they lived in, the way fossils are formed, and the diets different dinosaurs ate. The book also has a unique Dino File at the back (before the glossary) that gives you a picture, the name, type, place they were found, height and weight of each dinosaur.

The second book were we got to have a look at was the Explanatorium of Nature, a book that is formidable in its knowledge, and its size. This book is somewhere around textbook size (just being honest here) and holds maybe even more knowledge. It is separated into 10 sections.

• The Basics of Life
• Microorganisms and Fungi
• Plants
• Invertebrates
• Fishes
• Amphibians
• Reptiles
• Birds
• Mammals
• Habitats

Each section has its own subsections as well, for example, the Birds section includes 22 subsections on things like how feathers work, how nests work, and how birds dive. Each subsection has two pages devoted entirely to their subject. This book rivals most school level books in both its imagery and information. The photographs are in stunning detail and they even include cross section, x-ray images, and close-up photos for the most in depth look at, for example, the tiny feet of a gecko. From cover to cover you're met with images, information, and answers about the world around you. This book is the perfect answer for the always asked question, "Why?".

While you may not have the need to fill a library of books, these books and the others like them are sure to expand your library of knowledge. Be sure to check out the ones I got to sneak peek, and the others at DK's website, as they have books for everyone, from many brands, and on many subjects, so you may find just the one you didn't know you needed.

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