Britannica's encyclopedia infographica by Andrew Pettie & Conrad Quilty-Harper. Infographics by Valentian D'Efilippo

The striking dark green cover with gold lettering and colourful images, will draw the eye to this very appealing encyclopedia. This highly visual book contains thousands of facts and figures about many things with the cleverly presented contents pages using the headings of Space; Land, Sea, Sky; Living Planet; Animals; Human Body; Human World. Also included in the final pages are Sources; Glossary; Scavenger Hunt Answers, Find Out More!; Index; Meet the Team.

In the beginning of the book, the reader is welcomed with the important fact: ‘that around 70 percent of the way our brain perceives the world is visual.’ Within the encyclopedia are 200 infographics and these infographics are a vital way to reveal information to encourage children and adults to remember.  The writers have included a vital double page spread explaining how the infographics are organised to clearly present information.

All information is easily accessible and well-spaced; surrounded by infographics in the form of tables, pictures, charts, diagrams, scales, graphs and photographs that are clearly labelled. For example, on page 110 is a table showing the many different shapes of leaves plus the interesting fact that the edge of the leaf is called a margin and there are many different types of margins. On the following page is a table showing the nine very different vein patterns with the arrangement of the veins inside a leaf called venation. Both pages clearly display the information being shared.

Throughout the book are some astounding facts that will capture the interest of young readers. Did you know there are about 1,300,000,000,000,000 earthworms on Earth with the longest measuring 6.7m? Or that tongues have a similar structure to an elephant’s trunk and the arms of an octopus? A surprising fact is that LEGO minifigures overtook the world’s population in 2016 and is steadily growing. In fact there are over a billion more LEGO figures than humans on the Earth!

This colourful and beautifully presented book will be a wonderful asset to a home, school or public library.

Themes: Facts, Infographics, Experts, Data.

Kathryn Beilby