Children's Miscellany

This is absolutely a book that parents should read FIRST before handing it to their child. Yes, some older kids in the 10-13 range might find it enormously fascinating, and love the tidbits presented here. A sweet-minded 6 year old, on the other hand, might have nightmares for weeks.

Some of the factoids are cool, even for adults, and can spawn interesting discussions. The smallest constellation is Crux Australis while the largest one is Hydra. Some of the most intelligent animals are pigs and elephants.

On the other hand, I'm sure quite a few kids would not have a good reaction to reading the gory details about the Black Death / bubonic plague details. "Bodies (and sometimes living victims) were shut in houses that were then burned to the ground." Did you know that day five symptoms include "swellings split open and ooze pus and blood"? Hmmmm.

Sure, sometimes the facts are meant to be a bit unusual, to tease the imagination of young kids. Kids love to explore what is "gross" in their own culture. So we learn that in Australia, people eat raw ants full of honey. To Australians, this is tasty. To kids in the US, this might seem odd. It's a great way to learn that what we think of as "normal", others might find strange, and vice versa.

Then some facts are simply wrong. The book states that "In China it is against the law to save a drowning person, as such an act would interfere with his or her fate." That's quite untrue - quick google searches find countless tales of "heroes" who are praised for saving drowning people. The only references to this law all quote the exact same text the book uses, making it seem like the book cut and paste the info from one of those websites. The quote seems to be an urban legend which was published without verification. Which then makes one wonder what else in there, that kids might assume is true, is really quite false.

And then there's sections that I simply find questionable. A whole section on how to insult other kids? Surely in a world with bullying problems, we don't want to encourage kids to be nasty to each other in even worse ways.

So yes, some kids will love the details in here. But as a parent I would absolutely read through it first, and even if your kid is mature enough to handle it, I'd make some of these entries "discussion topics" rather than words to be taken as gospel.

I purchased this book with my own funds.

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