A stunning book about the many things in the world from Marc Martin, the author and illustrator of A River and A Forest.
Marc Martin is an illustrator, artist and book maker based in
Melbourne, Australia. His illustrations have been commissioned by
clients such as Monocle magazine, Wired magazine, The Financial
Review, Capital magazine, The Australian Centre for the Moving
Image, and various festivals.
He is also the author and illustrator of five books, A Forest,
Silent Observer, The Curious Explorer's Illustrated Guide to Exotic
Animals A-Z, Max and A River.
Travel the world from the comfort of your chair with this
gloriously illustrated book from Marc Martin.
An absolutely delightful guide to the world for young explorers.
You'll be taken from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the frozen
continent of Antarctica via Hong Kong and Ulaanbaatar.
The pages are full of fun and personality, with quirky facts and
gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations which are sure to capture
readers' attention. Did you know there's only one place to withdraw
cash on the entire continent of Antarctica?
My son and I spent a long time poring over the pages deciding where
we would like to visit and marvelling at some of the weird and
wonderful spectacles on display.
A stunning book, the perfect introduction to the amazing world
around us.
*Library Girl and Book Boy Blog*
There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to his choice or arrangement
of destinations: Ulaanbaatar with its ubiquity of yaks and
Reykjavik, home to lots of Annas and Jóns clearly interested him so
there we are.
Amusing snippets of information are scattered over the large pages,
some such as Lenin almost 'accidentally' being an honorary member
of the Beatles are funny, or that New York is sometimes called 'The
City that Never Sleeps' (probably on account of the coffee!) Martin
suggests.
So, if you want to be an 'armchair traveller', this is for you;
better still, get hold of the book, be inspired by one of the
destinations herein and then pay it a visit, to learn more about
its people, wildlife, buildings, food, transport and landmarks for
real.
*Red Reading Hub*
This is a non fiction picture book of huge page size in which
various cities or regions from around the world are each given a
two page spread illustrated with dozens of painted images.
?
What makes this book particularly special is that each of the
images is associated with a recorded fact about an animal from the
location or the city itself. For example when the reader turns to
the spread on Iceland they will learn that Icelandic people drink
more Cola than any other group of people in the world!
?
Boys will be amused by an entry on the Parisian spread. In the
section headed Cakes and Pastries (two things the French are well
known for) we see a dog. The turd the dog has just extruded is
marked 'Not a cake'.
?
Whilst there are whimsical and silly aspects to this book it does
perform a useful role and in the hands of geography teachers who
find young pupils struggling with narrative text it could be of
particular use.
*Armadillo magazine*
This is a book for flipping through as an artist. Marc Martin
whizzes round the world in a random and eclectic fashion. His pages
are crammed with tiny, busy images - and there are lots of them.
Illustrating random interesting facts or characteristics associated
with the chosen city (cats in Cairo, dust in Alice Springs). This
is not the book to go to find something out; rather it is for the
child browser, attracting attention through quirky images that need
careful exploration - and hopefully inspiring further reading.
*Book For Keeps*
A few weeks ago we talked about this fantastic Book of the Week
winner on our first ever Podcast. If you listened in, thank you SO
much - and if you wanted to know more about the book here's our
proper review!
Marc Martin's "Lots" may indeed tread the path trodden by so many
other books we've seen lately on the blog. Non-Fiction books
celebrating the diversity of our planet, and the many countries and
cultures that make up our wonderful world are always fascinating
from a children's book perspective.
Many authors and publishers take the approach of dishing up a
factual breakdown of each country and the folk who live there, but
we prefer something that feels a little more personal. Almost like
a travelogue approach.
Marc succeeds in this by hand-painting all the detailed little
illustrations depicted throughout the book, along with hand-written
notes on the various interesting things you'll find in each
location.
It's a serious wow, as you can see from a couple of the page
spreads below (including one of our favourites, Japan):We just
couldn't get enough of those vending machines...!
...and of course who could possibly resist the cute Albatross
couple on this spread!
Our whistle-stop tour is a wondrous journey, and the reason this
book succeeds so beautifully is because it's so good for such a
wide range of ages. From the very very young kids who will love
looking at the colourful illustrations and learning a bit more
about our world, to older kids like Charlotte who love the
(sometimes quite cheeky) humour in the illustrations.
It's utterly fabulous and once again proof positive that
non-fiction books can be utterly entrancing and mesmerising, just
as the best picture books can be.
Charlotte's best bit: Kawaii cute things in Japan (lord help my
wallet if we ever make it over there and she sees the real kawaii
stuff in all the shops over there)
Daddy's favourite bit: Brilliant illustrations to make your jaw
drop, a metric ton of fascinating facts and figures about each
country and culture, and a really large dose of brilliant humour to
keep things buzzing along.
*Read It Daddy*
What an enticing way to explore the different landscapes our world
offers, and how humans have left their footprint on it. From the
wilds of Antartica to the deserts of Alice Springs and the bustling
neighbourhoods of Cairo, this descriptive and evocative book brings
the corners of the world to life. It is constructed like a
scrapbook, with each spread focused on one city or region with
highlights of images, facts and colours. The Cairo spread, for
example, focuses on the bustling traffic, cats and doorkeepers -
not just the pyramids (although they are present) and there are
notes about favourite dishes, the market place and traffic - over
4.5m cars! The Amazon Rainforest spread focuses on the wildlife and
the different kinds of trees - a wonderfully colourful spread that
takes us from the electric eels in the rivers (shock their prey
with 600 volts of electricity) to the monkeys in the treetops
(16,000 different species of trees here). A book for dipping into,
exploring, and coming back to - a treat for any library shelf.
*Reading Zone*
In this illustrated celebration of the world, they'll travel far
and wide - from
Hong Kong to the Amazon and Ulaanbaatar to Antarctica. Lots gives
you a
guided tour around the globe, highlighting facts that make each
country
unique. Ignite the travel bug in every curious little explorer with
this one.
*Smallish Magazine*
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