Weird but True! 2: 300 Outrageous Facts

Weird But True #2

by National Geographic Kids, Jonathan Halling (Illustrator)

Did you know that a great white shark can weigh as much as 15 gorillas? That meteorites the size of basketballs land on Earth about once a month? Kids will devour more than 300 wacky facts in Weird but True! 2—the second installment in a lively new spin-off series from the award-winning National Geographic Kids magazine.
National Geographic Kids is the nation’s largest magazine for children, with more than 1.3 million subscribers and 5 million readers. The brand is rapidly gaining traction in the book market, with the huge success of National Geographic Readers and the National Geographic Kids Almanac. Straight from the pages of the magazine’s top-scoring feature, this little book is chock-full of tremendous fun. It’s packed with even more of the wild-n-wacky facts, whimsical designs, and all-out reading fun that made the first Weird but True volume an early success.
This book’s compact size makes it easy to handle and fun to browse. Eye-popping photos and bold, colorful graphics nab kids’ attention and entice them to read. Brain-bending facts cover a broad range of topics, from science to foods to pop culture and just about everything else under the sun. Kids will have so much fun that they won’t even realize they’re learning.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Science, Picture Books, Reference, Middle Grade, Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2010

About the author

With more than 600 titles—including the popular Weird But True franchise and the New York Times Best Selling National Geographic Kids Almanac—National Geographic Kids Books is the recognized leader in nonfiction for kids. Published in 28 languages, NGK Books reaches approximately 85 million kids every year.

Offering K-12 educators resources that align to and support the Common Core State Standards, National Geographic has a long history of providing high-quality informational texts suitable for primary, upper elementary, and middle school English language arts, social studies, and science classrooms.

Reviews

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may be marketed for kids, but I didn't know most of this stuff either.

Such as this giant pizza some guys made (for what reason? fame? party?) in a supermarket in South Africa of all places. I googled it and the picture is impressive. But the book makes it more simple than it needs to be, saying "A supermarket in South Africa created a pizza that was 122 feet, 8 inches across and weighed as much as two male African elephants." That's all good and such, but why not list the actual weight of the pizza too then? My friend Google says the pizza weighed 26, 883 pounds. I guess that may be as much as two African elephants, although I don't feel like looking it up further.

See it as kind of the kid version of a mixture of Guiness book of world records trivia, Ripley's believe or not snippets, and some science reminders from school (i.e. light travels faster than sound. Duh.)

Some things make sense and aren't a surprise, just something I never thought about - such as "Some frogs glow when they eat fireflies." Ew, but kind of cool. Want to see that now, although poor firefly.
But then there's the irritating facts that shouldn't be in there at all:

"The largest pencil is about as long as seven crocodiles."

What does this even mean? First, how long were the crocodiles? The statement is so nonsensical and incomplete that it shouldn't be put in as any kind of fact. Crocodiles obviously come in massive sizes, so was this pencil over 100 feet? Or were these baby crocodiles and it was one of those dorky novelty giant pencils we bought in the store as kids?

There's some new life lessons in here I need to try to remember -

"Scents smell better through your right nostril than your left one."

Interesting since I have a horrible sense of smell and can't pick up subtle nuances of perfume or lotions at Bath and Body works with my friends. I'll have to remember to inhale in the right nostril from now on. If only that would actually help...

"Eating shrimp can turn white flamginos pink." - Strange, and why? Must google later.

"A cornflake shaped like the U.S state of Illinois sold for $1, 350." - Pathetic.

Overall some interesting stuff in here, National Geographic for Kids displayed it all in a creative and colorful manner, and it's decently thick (200 small pages) to give kids and silly adults enough to ponder.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what it says. Great fun for those who like wierd and wonderful facts to boggle your mind with. Simple picoral form + phrases. Great fun.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turtles lived on the earth before dinosaurs did. Did you know that? I didn’t. This small book is packed with little known facts. Most involve animals such as this fact: only female bees sting. Others involve word origins and inanimate objects like: a space suit costs 10 million dollars. Children should enjoy learning about these interesting tidbits (and might even teach their parents a new thing or two). However, the paperback edition won’t stand up to repeated circulation. Includes an index.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

This National Geographic book called 18Weird but true 19 is quite interesting. I liked that the authors who I don 19t know the names of tried to make it like a book but also like a newspaper. The non fiction facts like snow leopards can 19t roar made me very surprised but at the same time having a feeling that you want to read more. This book was made for education and interest. The book was published in 2010 and it has 209 pages. I choose this book because I have seen it in a store once and I really wanted to read it so I saw it online full version and I choose it.

This book gives you information that most people don 19t ever know about, I for example learned that 1CBats have thumbs 1D or 1COnly female bees sting 1D and my favorite 1CThe average dream only lasts for 20 minutes 1D. I think the authors did a good job showing all these facts in an interesting way and fun way too.

In conclusion this is an amazing book in my opinion, it has all it needs pictures, fun facts and entertainment/education. My favorite part of this book was EVERYTHING, I loved every part of it (I have no least favorite part). I would recommend this for 8-10 year olds, it gives entertainment but at the same time they learn stuff

[Vandy]

a mountain climber carried the olympic torch on top of mt.everest.
a church in czech rep. has a chandelier made of human bones.
if about 33 million people eld hands they could make a circle around the equator.
a 100 year old chocolate bar sold for nearly $700.
no one knows the color of dinosaurs.

[Isaac L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is full of zany facts. Di you know that Toe wrestling is a sport? Did you know that Earth is the only planet not named after a roman god. These facts and more in weird but true 2!

[wjkb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really good weird but true book!!!

[Lisa Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, so many random things I didn't know! Some were very interesting others just gave me the creepy crawlies!

[Liam]

good

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, interesting and educative funny facts about various subjects. All well presented and visually attractive for younger readers!

[Jbussen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a kids book when I put it into my que. As always I love bathroom readers. This was not it.
Also: I don't think this would interest me as a kid. "A group of Blue Jays is called a PARTY", uh okay. "A Tigers stripes are different of the left and right sides of it's body", why would they be the same? Even interesting facts are kind of lame when presented solo. "Sharks have existed longer than trees" is interesting but just stating it? I am like AND? "The hottest stars are blue", okay... um WHY would make it interesting. "A Pennsylvania bakery made a 54 foot hot dog", so? Why is that interesting? How big was the world's biggest pizza? Don't know. Don't care.

[Emily Leung Sui Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book and its series are interesting and informative. I really liked its content because it really enlarges my horizons and makes me gain more knowledge, for example, recycling one soda can saves enough energy to run a television for 3 hours and an octopus have nearly 2000 suckers on its arms. However, I think this book lacks some information, for example, the first email was sent in 1971, I think the author can include who and where the email was sent. Overall, I really liked this book and I will read the rest of its series. I really recommend this to my classmates.

[Devorah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that the facts in the book are true? One of the facts is that it's possible to smell scents in a dream.
Also, a hill in New Zealand is named: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu!
All these facts are true!!
I recommend you read this book!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are so much fun! I recommend them for ages 5-101. :)

Here are some fun facts I learned:

*Ketchup was originally sold as medicine.
*The average person walks about 80,000 miles in a lifetime.
*A "jiffy" is 1/100 of a second.
*Animals that lay eggs don't have belly buttons.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ditto. The first one.

[Grace Kee · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was very interesting and i enjoyed reading facts about different things

[Cameron Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lot of interesting facts.

[#Elenaaaaaaaaaaaaaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very amazing as i have never thought of such weirdly horrendous yet funny things!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son loves these books. I like them, too, but be prepared for a running commentary of weird facts when your kid reads them.

[Awsom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good.
I really liked the facts.

[Tsz Hei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book

[Danielle Hammelef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and weird facts that kids and adults will like. I wish it included information on where some of the natural features, such as waterfalls, were located.

[Shawn Hatterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book because it had a lot of interesting and cool facts that i didn't know were true but are.

[Sanjay]

uiiik

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting

[Amy Diop · Rating 5 out of 5]

like it , it amazing for kids i'm learning a lot.

[Daytona Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these books, love learning all the new things that Ive gotten to learn from this, amazinggg!!

[Blaise · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are amazing

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok book aimed at young children. Full of interesting facts although it leaves more questions with every fact. It’s a shame that the facts weren’t explored in more depth.

[Angel McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read with my kids. Love these.