5,000 Awesome facts (about animals) by National Geographic Kids

 "5,000 Awesome Facts" is one of National Geographic Kids' series of browsable nonfiction, although the last title was published in 2016 so it's been a while since they used it. The books are large, oversized volumes and include general browsing facts as well as some more particularly themed titles. I was caught by the animal volume, as I recently started a nonfiction book club and thought it would be a useful reference for that program.

Each spread includes a set number of facts, ranging from 15-25 facts, spread out with photographs and explanations, to spreads of end-to-end sentences that pack 100 facts into a single spread. The facts range from domestic to wild animals, historical to contemporary, and cover the gamut of living creatures, although they focus mostly on vertebrates. There is a page of facts about scorpions, a spread of 75 facts about marsupials, facts about feet, wings, and tails, facts about animal intelligence and communication, polar animals and mutualistic animals.

This is a browsing book, so it's really not something you'd sit down and read straight through. I admit that the spreads of end-to-end sentences defeated me; I found them very difficult to read. The other drawback to the book is its size. I've had issues with National Geographic titles, especially the larger ones, breaking their bindings but they're not always available in a paperback that would let me order a prebound version. I ordered this title in the more expensive library binding and I'll be interested to see how it holds up to the heavy use I am sure we will be giving it. I was a little skeptical about some of the facts that didn't sound quite right, but I checked them and they were correct, so National Geographic comes through with fact-checking as usual!

Verdict: If you're only able to purchase a few browsing nonfiction titles, National Geographic's are the go-to and this is sure to be a hit with the attractive photographs and wide variety of animal facts. Even if the binding doesn't last, it can be recycled for lots of fun crafts and it would make a great reference for quiz games, scavenger hunts, and I am going to use it to prep the fact boards we're decorating for our book club. It would also make a great gift for animal-lovers!

ISBN: 9781426372612; Published September 2022 by National Geographic; Review copy provided by publisher; Library bound edition, 9781426372629, purchased for the library