Book
Examination Site: Book of the Week for 1/15/01Book
Examination Site: Book of the Week for 1/15/01
BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS
Scholastic Reference
Move over, Guinness Book of World Records; you have competition!
An accessible
format and brightly colored pictures will easily attract young people obsessed
with such records. The book contains the following broad record categories:
nature, human-made (thankfully gender free), U.S. (every state is represented),
science and technology, money and business, sports, and popular culture.
Each page is formatted similarly. The subcategory is listed on the top left (ex. Tunnels within Human-Made category). On the top quarter of the page is the title - large and obvious (ex. World’s Longest Underwater Tunnel). The rest of the page is a picture with two small insets. One is text describing the record holder (ex. Seikan Tunnel). The second inset is a bar graph with the next runners up (ex. Channel, Dai-Shimizu, Shin-Kanmom, and Great Belt Link). This format is consistent throughout the book.
Important to every non-fiction book is a good table of contents and an excellent index which this book can claim. This book may not include the vast number of records listed in its rival, but the presentation will win converts. For locals, the Delaware page features Old Swedes Church – the nation’s oldest church building still standing in its original form.
