Return to FACTopia!

Kate Hale

Andy Smith

Britannica Books, 2022

208pp., hbk., RRP $25.99

9781913750398

Did you know that bacteria from between people’s toes has been used to make cheese? Or that the world’s most expensive cheese is made from donkey milk? Or that the milk from one species of cockroach is the most nutritious substance on Earth? Or that a cockroach can survive for weeks without its head?

In this choose-your-own adventure journey through more than 400 facts, all of which have been verified by Encyclopedia Britannica, every fact  is connected to the next in an ingenious trail of information, where you will hop from topic to topic in unexpected and hilarious ways. And there’s not just one trail through these pages: sometimes your path branches and you can choose to jump to a totally different (but still connected) part of the book. Let your curiosity lead you through this witty wonderland of facts!

There are connections made between a vast range of topics from history and geography to science and nature, including astronauts, polar bears, rollercoasters, sabre-toothed cats, shipwrecks, bananas, pirates, orangutans, medieval knights, and more, all accompanied by more than 300 fabulously witty colour illustrations and photographs.

And while disclosing that bacteria from between people’s toes has been used to make cheese may not be quite the best to share at the family dinner table, nevertheless these are the sorts of weird and wonderful things that kids of a certain age love to pore over and absorb for just the right (or wrong) occasion.  The format of taking your own path which is indicated by a dotted line and then branching out with diversions to other pages is unique to this series which includes FACTopia and the upcoming Gross FACTopis and ensure that each time the reader devles into it, new discoveries are made. 

Something a little different for your non fiction lovers.