Tuesday 28 January 2014

Why Spacemen Can't Burp, by Mitchell Symons


The latest in Symons' series of weird 'did-you-know?' fact books takes a pretty similar format to his other books, even right down to having some sort of bodily function in the title.  We've had burps, bums, bogies, ear wax, poo, farts and pukes.  What will the next one be called?  I dread to think...

Why Spacemen Can't Burp is laid out in a Question and Answer format and seasoned with various appropriate doodles.  Symons answers various (loosely science based) questions, many of which have been sent in to him by inquiring young minds.  He explains some unusual idioms, debunks various myths, urban legends and misnomers and generally fuels the reader with enough interesting facts and amusing tidbits to see you comfortably through your next form quiz or episode of QI.

Covering topics such as human bodies, animals, forces, sayings, food, geography and just about everything else, it's a pretty broad spectrum of facts and oddities, corrections and confirmations.

It's funny, informative and interesting and will obviously be wildly popular, as have all of Symons' other titles. It's full of the gross facts and bits and bobs that young readers love to dip in and out of and out-do eachother reading aloud.  Personally, I find these sorts of books really difficult to read, as my attention tends to wander with each page and there's nothing to develop really, in a book of facts but I know there's a pretty huge readership  for this type of book.

No comments:

Post a Comment