Customer Reviews

National Geographic Answer Book: Fast Facts About Our World

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone, with or without children. I purchased it for my daughter, but found it so interesting, I began going through it!

National Geographic Answer Book: Fast Facts About Our World
Correct information is a primary concern in an "Answer Book", even when the answers are fast facts. From this point of view, the book is not as good as the advertisement would have us believe; the book might be useful, but be ready to check the answers using other sources. A few examples.

Picture (photograph) on page 310: "Charles Lindbergh lands at Croydon Airport, London, completing his historic transatlantic one-man flight on April 20, 1927 ......." (Croydon Airport?? April 20 1927???).

The TRUE FACTS: Lindbergh started his one-man transatlantic flight taking off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York at 7:52am on MAY 20, 1927. He landed his plane (Spirit of St. Louis) at the Le Bourget Airdrome, Paris, France at 10:22pm (Paris time) on May 21, 1927.

"How does a flower work?" See picture of the PARTS OF A FLOWER on page 139:
the ovules are indicated as egg cells. Again, this is not a true fact: the ovule is a complex multicellular structure containing one egg cell.

The short description of plant responses to light signals (p.139) is on the short side and, as it is, does not tell the complete story; perhaps, photoperiodism should have been mentioned in addition to phototropism; and it would also have been nice to mention that there are other plant hormones
(gibberellins, cytokinis, etc) in addition to auxins.

All considered, one cannot give more than one star to this book, and if used to satisfy children's curiosity, the parents should make sure of confirming the information using other sources.

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ANSWER BOOK is an attempt by the editors of National Geographic to provide the modern reader with a concise and relevant reference book about Planet Earth. In the days before the Internet (pre-1994) was common, encyclopedias and the like were necessary tools for the professional and amateur scholar alike. However, in the age of Wikipedia and Google, reference books have largely been regulated to the dustbins of history. Still, they have their place and THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ANSWER BOOK is a good one.

The book is divided into nine chapters and attempts to provide a go-to source for basic questions about geography, geology, astronomy, anthropology, world history, and basic science. The chapters are Maps & Globes, The Universe, Planet Earth, Life on Earth, Climates & Habitats, The Human World, World History, Science & Technology, and Countries of the World. My favorite section of the book is Chapter Nine: Countries of the World. This section provides a profile of all 194 countries of the world. The countries are divided into the six continents they can be found upon. For each country there is a small picture of the nations national flag, the complete name of the country, basic information about the country (land area, population, capital, etc.), and a short paragraph about the country. I also liked how colorful the book is. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is known for there breathtaking photos and they don't disappoint in this book. There are over 500 colored photographs and illustrations as well as more than 100 modern and archival maps.

I enjoy THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ANSWER BOOK and believe it will be a reference book I refer to often. However, it's not flawless. For instance, on page 310 there is a photograph of Charles Lindbergh with the caption "Charles Lindbergh lands at Croydon Airport, London, completing his historic transatlantic one-man flight on April 20, 1927." Lindbergh completed his solo transatlantic flight on May 20, 1927 in Paris. The picture could be of him flying into Croydon because he visited there shortly after his stop in Paris, but his visit to Croydon wasn't on April 20, 1927. I understand how such an error could happen, but for a book such as this, there shouldn't be errors like that and is the reason why I can't give this book as high a recommendation as I would like. That's why you shouldn't use Wikipedia and Google to do your research for a book like this.

But for the families with younger school children, a wonderful reference for the inevitable questions budding scholars think of (or not!) Gave a copy to two families, and they were immediately into the book! Good choice.

Cannot complain one bit about the price that I got for this book. The book arrived quickly and was packed well. I read this book and found it was perfect. Just what the description said.

I bought this book for my girlfriend for Valentine's Day. Since then I have been bombarded (in a good sense) with facts about the world that I never thouhgt I would know. If you are interested in knowing more about what is around us, this is a definite buy

I bought this book for a Christmas gift for my Dad. He enjoys reading interesting stuff, and this book really fit the bill!