The Ten series / The 10 series

Pearson, 2009.
The Ten series is an accessible series of information books, which deals with topics of high interest. The series includes the sub-series 'Our earth', 'The arts' and 'Leisure'.
There are different authors for different titles:
eg The 10 worst natural disasters (Our earth) by Karen Uhler - useful for curriculum in Geography, SOSE and HSIE;
The 10 most amazing animated movies (The arts) by Sandra Quan-D'Eramo;
The 10 hottest fashion trends (Leisure) by Trish Hurley.
In each 48 page book there are 4 pages of information for the 10 ranked items. A countdown from number 10 to number 1 encourages anticipation of just which item will be ranked at number 1. The format provides summary details, boxed information, quotes in the form of The expert says . . . , Take note, and a Quick fact. There are large colour photos and some black and photos, too. Each volume includes Contents, Introduction, Index, Ranking criteria and What do you think?
Each number 1 is a surprise to me:
eg The 10 worst natural disasters - Yellow River Flood in China, 1931 with approximately 3.5 million deaths;
The 10 most amazing animated movies - Steamboat Willie, 1928, and what happened to Walt Disney's Oswald the Rabbit, which preceded this movie;
The 10 hottest fashion trends - Jeans, 1873, whose origins can be traced back to the 1500s.
In the title The 10 worst natural disasters I noted 2 errors in the editing:
Contents - the description of the Mount Pelee volcano on page 3
'We thought...' on page 46.
However, they do not detract greatly from the overall quality of these publications.
This series was originally published 3 years ago in 2009. It is a highly suitable series for Middle school students, but I enjoyed reading the titles, too. These books would have broad appeal to all readers, who like to browse amazing facts and events in the non-fiction genre.
Margaret Strickland