Write a Review Wednesday: Pick Me Up

Welcome to another Write a Review Wednesday, a meme started by Tara Lazar as a way to show support to authors of kids literature. In preparation for Chinese New Year I reviewed Barefoot Books Lin Yi’s Lantern: A Moon Festival Story last week. This week my seven-year-old daughter has been working on a school research project. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at reference books so I thought a review of DK‘s book Pick Me Up would be appropriate (although it has nothing to do with her research project). Thanks goes to Chris at DKCanada for my review copy.

@@@@@@@@@@

Did you know you can use a pine cone to predict the weather or how to confuse an angry seagull or why people are living longer? I didn’t know this either (except the Pine Cone one) but I picked it up in DK‘s reference book Pick Me Up. This lively and informative book covers topics on history, the natural world and  even arts, entertainment and media, just to name a few.

I love how the content is grouped together. On the page about the dinosaurs and their extinction during the Ice Age you transition into possible human extinction and preparing for Armageddon. The two seem unrelated but they do have similar threads.

The book also builds into the content links or references to other related content in the book by highlighting specific words and providing page numbers. While reading about colour, I learn how colours affect your mood and I can flip to another part of the book to learn more about moods. The chunked content and internal cross-referencing reminds me a lot of the Internet. I can get little bits of info and jump from A to G to B based on my interest and the relevance to the topic I’m reading on.

The use of illustration, photography and typography grab the reader’s eye, even if just flipping through. Pick Me Up calls to you to do just that. Once you open the pages you’ll find yourself drawn in.

If you are looking for something specific, there is a general contents at the front, breaking things into categories, as well as an alphabetical index at the back.

Although you probably won’t be using Pick Me Up as reference book for a school project anytime soon, you’re bound to learn a thing or two just by flipping the pages. This book is great for that knowledge hungry kid in your house (though I’m no kid and have found myself delightfully stuck in the pages).

You might also like DK‘s book Open Me Up, a similarly styled reference book based on the human body. You can see a full review of Open Me Up on EverythingMom.com.

Want to add Pick Me Up to your own personal library? You can by visiting your local bookstore or online at Amazon.ca. Checkout the past Write a Review Wednesday Posts for other great book recommendations for kids.

Advertisement