SUMMER time and the living is easy. Except if you have children to keep
amused. But if your annual two weeks abroad is just a distant memory and term
time seems an aeon away, why not pack the little darlings off on a journey of
the imagination?
Cyberspace is a good place to start. With My First Amazing World
Explorer (Dorling Kindersley, 拢29.99, ISBN 0 7513 1526 5), children
as young as four can travel the globe. It鈥檚 not all slow boats to China and
jetting in to Rio. This CD contains a huge amount of information about people,
places, buildings and wildlife. Cybertravellers will learn map-reading skills;
back in the real world they can try their hand at cartography with help from
books in the activity pack. World Explorer will have them collecting
postcards, looking for labels from foods with exotic origins and wondering about
the future of the planet. The global village has never been so accessible.
By comparison, a visit to the seaside may seem mundane. But youngsters will
need more than buckets and spades in their day sacks for a trip to the Skeleton
Coast in southeast Africa. Here on the western edge of the Namib Desert,
perilous shifting sands contain the rusting hulks of countless shipwrecked
boats. The Namib comes in at number eight in Neil Morris鈥檚 The World鈥檚 Top
10 Deserts (Belitha Press, 拢7.99, ISBN 1 85561 512 6). The book,
which is for primary school children, contains maps, photos, drawings, a
glossary and a surprising amount of information about desert ecosystems.
Advertisement
Time travel is sure to appeal to bolshy teenagers, and Living Earth
(Dorling Kindersley, 拢19.99, ISBN 0 7513 5388 4) could be just the ticket.
This ambitious romp through Earth鈥檚 life history begins with 鈥淔irst Life鈥�,
finishing with 鈥淧reserving Life鈥�. Stunning photographs against DK鈥檚
characteristic white background make the book as visually appealing as others in
the Eyewitness series, but Living Earth tries to cover too much ground
and seems to lose its way in the process. The reader takes whirlwind tours of
evolution, botany, zoology, terrestrial and marine ecology, and conservation.
There is plenty of interest though, from the habits of the tree-climbing robber
crab to the anatomy of a hurricane.
Prehistoric Man by Juri van der Heever (New Holland, 拢3.99,
ISBN 1 85368 476 7) promises another trip back in time. Part of a series called
鈥淨uestions and Answers鈥�, it presents snippets of information to answer queries
such as 鈥淲hy is the boy from Turkana such a hot issue?鈥� (It鈥檚 the most complete
Homo erectus ever found.) This format works well to convey basic
concepts and the essential details about anthropological discoveries. Where it
fails is in its attempts to address complex issues such as birth control. That
aside, did you know that humans are just as hirsute as apes, we just have
shorter hairs . . . ?
Maybe, but we surely can鈥檛 be as hairy as the tarantula on the cover of
Spiders and Scorpions by Paul Hillyard (Joshua Morris, 拢7.99, ISBN 1
85724 163 0). The book uses cellophane windows to give a guided tour of the
internal anatomy of the beasts in question. It also offers detailed analyses of
their life histories. What should be an interesting excursion, however, is
marred by a confusing road plan and sloppy signposting.
Down on the farm, life is much more straightforward. There the kids can
learn to shear a sheep in six easy steps, armed with nothing more than a pair of
manual clippers. Farm by Ned Halley (Dorling Kindersley, 拢8.99,
ISBN 0 7513 6065 1) puts great emphasis on traditional practices and the history
of farming. 鈥淭est-tube-baby鈥� plants are the only concession to high-tech
subjects. Still, your offspring will find plenty of farmyard statistics to wow
their school chums.
And while they鈥檝e still got their wellies on, how about a trip to the exotic
Trinidad Pitch Lake? This tarry quagmire has been quarried for more than a
hundred years but there is no scar鈥攏ew pitch simply seeps up from below.
Ingrid Cranfield鈥檚 100 Greatest Natural Wonders (Dragon鈥檚 World,
拢8.95, ISBN 1 85028 3176) is a collection of the beautiful and the bizarre
with enough variety to tempt even the most jaded young traveller. Here they can
giggle over the strangely lumpy Chocolate Hills in the Philippines, feel
insignificant beside 700-metre cliffs on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, and
still be home in time to start the new school term in September.