The Slowest Book Ever by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Kelly Murphy

This is a unique and fascinating collection of science and inspiration. There's just one thing about it that bothers me.

This compact book with its orange, black and white color scheme quite different from anything I've read recently. It's a collection of facts and information, but more importantly it's a collection of thoughts and ideas. It's divided up into sections like "slow nature thoughts - big, chewy thoughts for your brain" and "slow geology facts - knowledge to help your forehead fossilize." There are also facts about art, space, and the final two pages are designed for you to rest your face whilst considering the thoughts presented in the book.

Back matter includes a glossary, acknowledgements (very slow acknowledgements, naturally) and final notes.

Funny asides, jokes, and quirky cartoons fill the book with humor and interest and lighten the odd facts and thought prompts.

I can see this being a great book for classroom use, discussion prompts for book clubs and car trips, or just to dip into and ponder. There's just one thing that drives me absolutely crazy. The layout. There is absolutely no gutter. In fact, parts of the words disappear into the gutter. I thought maybe the book I'd borrowed had a printing error so I tried another copy - same thing. This doesn't seem to have bothered anyone else, but it drove me insane.

See what I mean? WHERE IS THE "T"??

Verdict: A really cool book and if the weird guttering doesn't bother you, have fun with it. Personally, I'll recommend this in ebook format because the gutter issue doesn't show up there. Yes, it's very petty. It REALLY annoyed me but apparently nobody else noticed.

ISBN: 9781620917831; Published 2016 by Boyds Mills; Borrowed from another library in my consortium