There's No Such Thing as a Silly Question

Having attended the exciting book launch of ‘Beasts from the Deep’ in the summer to mark the first publication by Nosy Crow in partnership with the University of Cambridge, I was delighted to receive a review copy of their second collaboration. This very successful association has produced another beautifully illustrated hardback of superb quality.

Here is a highly original publication consisting of 213 questions which are checked by experts in the relevant fields. Adult humans usually have up to 213 bones in their body, and hence this matches the number of questions. Interesting topics covered include dinosaurs, inventions, maths and numbers, music and sound, sports, and the human body. There is a useful index at the back of the book which shows Questions by Subject in addition to another more general index.

The structure of the volume is such that the young reader can dip into it when they wish or read it sequentially. It is a high-quality book which encourages curious young minds to find out more about the world we inhabit. For my part I enjoyed discovering, ‘Who invented taking the bins out?’ on p. 42. I was amazed to learn this was Eugène Poubelle in France in 1884. This explains why the French noun for dustbin is la poubelle!

Congratulations to the whole team who created this stunning book. Mike Rampton’s text displays lots of humour to entertain the reader, and illustrator Guilherme Karsten’s talent can be seen throughout the volume. It is very effective to have some spreads laid out in portrait style such as pp. 36-37 which ask, ‘What’s the highest mountain in the world’ and ‘How deep is the sea?’

This book is the perfect present for an inquisitive youngster or even an eager teenager. Libraries at school or in the community would benefit enormously from stocking this title. I hope I have whetted your appetite too and I am already looking forward to the next publication produced by this outstanding partnership.