By National Geographic Kids
The big glossy one: a thousand facts, and the only volume in the franchise that stops to explain why any of them are true.
Nine inches by twelve, a metallic cover, a thousand facts, and photographs blown up to the size of your hand. Weird animals, freaky weather, space holidays, inventions nobody asked for, extreme sports. What sets this one apart are the Ultimate Secret Revealed spreads, where a fact stops being a one-liner and gets taken apart: how peanut butter actually becomes a diamond, how frogs actually end up falling out of the sky.
The pocket books hand your child a fact and move on. This one occasionally turns around and shows the working, and that is a real difference in what your child walks away with. A fact you can repeat is a party trick. A fact you can explain is the beginning of understanding something, and the Secret Revealed spreads are where a browsing habit tips over into actual curiosity. The size helps too. It's a book that has to be opened on a table or a floor, which means it gets read next to someone rather than under a duvet, and the facts come out loud.