Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Book of Knowledge

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Obviously this book doesn't contain everything you need to know- it is less than 200 pages! It does, however, contain a great deal of information. What a great book to have around the house or in the classroom when a question comes up- from the size of Earth's continents to what is a neuron.
The book is divided in to sections such as Our Bodies, Plants and Animals, and The Earth. I enjoyed just reading through the sections and found myself thinking "I didn't know that" and reading things that piqued my interest and made me want to learn more about a subject. I can see this happening with a child- there are so many subjects covered one should be interesting to everyone. This would also be a good resource to get started on an assigned report; sometimes getting started is the hardest part- this book would give ideas of where to get started on almost any subject.
This book is interesting and a valuable tool, I highly recommend.

Though it doesn't quite contain "everything you need to know," it is a good starting place! The book has nine sections: Our Bodies, Plants and Animals, The Earth, Planets and Stars, Science and Technology, The Arts, Our Society, History and Countries. Each section is broken up into topics with one topic to each page. Each page is equally split between text and illustrations. The book is aimed at the 9-12 age range and it does a good job of staying within that span. The text seems to be aimed at a younger age, while the illustrations have more in depth information.

The book is very nicely done. Obviously, the text is brief and to the point: "In 1773 Americans protested about the tea tax by boarding British tea ships in Boston and throwing the tea into the Harbor. Soon war broke out." Straight and to the point! The illustrations are very detailed and informative. For example, in the Buildings section there is a cool picture comparing the height of buildings from the Great Pyramid to the CN Tower in Canada. The illustrations in the Plants and Animals section are also very good.

Overall, the book is a good addition to the library of your child. It is well written enough that it might turn your child into someone who enjoys looking at encyclopedias and discovering new information! And that is not a bad thing!

this book is simply not as cool as a comparable product like DK CHILDREN's book "PICK ME UP". The books are intended for the same age range,at least according to Amazon. "PICK ME UP" had several articles that leapt out at me ("Oh, I will have to go back and look at that one") as I was paging through it. This book? Not so much. Also, if you do look at a particular article, particularly about a subject that you don't know that much about, the articles don't really seem to flow. The facts seem a bit random. This book is much more compact than "PICK ME UP", but I think "PICK ME UP" is by far the better book.

When I first opened the book, I was awed by the beautiful illustrations and photos. But what a let down after that!

* The book consists of nine major topics including: Our Bodies, Plants and Animals, The Earth, Planets and Stars, Science and Technology, The Arts, Our Society, History, and Countries.

* Each major topic is one page long and contains several subtopics.

For instance, Our Bodies contains a page on Human Beings, Bones and Muscles, Breathing, Heart and Blood, Food and Digestion, Senses, Brain and Nerves, Health and Fitness, Diseases, and Life on Earth.

History contains a timeline of the world, Ancient Peoples, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Incas, Middle Ages, Knights and Castles, Explorers and Exploration, Vikings, Aztecs, Great Empires, Inventions and Inventors, American Revolution, French Revolution, World War I, World War II, Human Rights, and Communism.

* Each subtopic entry contains a VERY BRIEF introduction to each of the topic.

For instance, under countries, it provides a few facts about the country, some photos that illustrate some of the things that the country is noted for, a map showing where the country is located and a VERY tiny bit of history - about four lines.

Under Farming, there is a brief definition of what farming is and that it began 10,000 years ago, a four-sentence section on growing crops, a five-sentence section on farm animals, a mention about farming in the tropics, a photograph of farming in East Africa and another growing rice, and two illustrations - a wild boar and a wild sheep with the sentence, "Farm animals were first bred from wild animals thousands of years ago."

* The Timeline of World History is broken down into four areas: Asia, Americas and Oceania, Africa and Middle East and Europe. History begins with hunters-gathers and first humans from 100,000 BC - 10,000 BC. Although Ancient China, Ancient Mexico, and Ancient Egypt are discussed, there is, curiously, no mention of Ancient Israel until the Romans conquer Palestine some time in 500s BC. With Israel having such a long documented history, it doesn't make sense to leave it out.

* Life begins about 400 million years ago and evolution is stated as fact, though no explanations are given and it is not a very integral part of the book.

* Under Religion, there is brief mention of six main ones: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. Key dates begin with c. 2000 at which time Hinduism begins in India and Abraham is mentioned as the father of Judaism.

* The technology section was dated with a brief mention of computers, the Internet and the WWW. No mention of recent technology.

As pretty as this book is, it's not worth the money. The information it provides is scant and choppy (for lack of another word) and somewhat inaccurate. Most children would be bored after looking at the photos as the text is dry and uninteresting. There is not enough "meat" in the book - just a shallow coverage of each topic. The only reason I see for spending the money on this one is if you want to read your child a short introduction to a topic. A child's nonfiction book on the topic, however, would be a better choice.

This is a beautiful book, detailed in its illustrations. The problem I have with it, is that the information is too basic. The information might be good for younger children, though probably a bit too advanced, but the pictures are too complex. Older readers who might be attracted by the illustrations, would be left wanting by the lack of detailed information. I would not recommend this book for any age.

This is a good book to have if you have young children. There are lots of pictures (average 3 pictures a page), which could spark an interest in a young child. It is a book to reach for if you only need very basic information.

To say the title is a bit misleading is an understatement. A book with only 192 pages cannot contain everything you need to know. For example, the entry on the American Revolution is one page and does not include the names of any important people. Not even George Washington made the entry. Ancient Egypt's entry did not include Cleopatra. I did find a picture of Julius Caesar the caption was very informative "In 45 BC the powerful general Julius Caesar made himself ruler of Rome". Yes, I can see that is everything I need to know about him. The book really falls short if you are interested in people. The very few references I found dealing with a person were always the one sentence description under a picture.

If this book was being marketed to younger children I would give it 4 or 5 starts, but to say this book contains everything a 9-12 year old needs to know is ridiculous.

Oxford University Press has published some terrific reference books for children includingThe Oxford Children's Book of Famous People,The Oxford Children's Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (Encyclopedia),Oxford Children's Dictionary, and The Oxford Children's Encyclopedia of Our World (Encyclopedia).

Their books are well-researched and beautifully presented. The material is carefully chosen to match the interests of children from grades 3-5.

"The Ultimate Book of Knowledge" is no exception. It is written at about fourth grade level, but it is richly illustrated, so younger children will enjoy it. It's the kind of book parents can keep on the shelf to share with little ones, and then point to when older kids ask questions.

While it does not contain enough detailed information for school reports, it will help students find the all-important key words they need to locate information in multi-volume encyclopedias or on the internet.

Arranged by subject, the book features a color-coded table of contents. Color bars at the top of each page and in the lower right corner make information easy to locate.

This is a very attractive book with tons of nice pictures and a good layout, but there's a big problem with it:

The information in this book is too basic and simplistic to really be a good resource.

I know its intended for children, but by covering EVERYTHING, they cover nothing, as most (if not all) young students are going to want to read more than two or three very basic sentences on any one specific topic.

It might be good for a quick reference, but I can't imagine even an elementary student using this book as the basis for a report or school project, the info is just too basic to be useful.

The Ultimate Book of Knowledge is aimed at the 9 to 12 year old budding academic, and it dispenses little nuggets of wisdom in easy-to-digest sections that make history and science sound like the exciting fields they are.

Do you have little bookworms on your gift list? Hopefully this book will whet the young appetite for knowledge in a way that could inspire the next Einstein... or Lincoln. Accompanied by informative and full-color photos, drawings, illustrations and charts, this is a book for the child at the end of their elementary school years to give them a nodding acquaintance with most of the fields of human history and endeavor.

At the target age I would have had this book by my side for a long time.

This book seems geared toward a younger audience (kids, it seems). It's colorful, contains lots of superficial information on lots of topics, and little of depth on any particular subject (as with any "sum up human civilization in 200 pages or less" book).

For what it is, it's pretty, relatively well laid out and might be good as a way to get kids "interested" in some aspect(s) of the humanities and/or science. But, if you're looking for any kind of depth, perhaps try a kid-friendly encyclopedia set?

As with any such book, the usual caveats are apparent: it's incomplete and is not the "ultimate" book of knowledge its title boldly asserts. Just the tip of the larger knowledge iceberg floating in a vast sea of knowledge. Some of the information may eventually become outdated as science marches on or as maps get redrawn, etc.