By Sabrina Weiss and Kerry Hyndman
“An island is a piece of land that is completely surrounded by water.”
When I first saw Amazing Islands, I knew it would be brilliant for a travel-loving, worldschooling family like ours! We’re always looking for ways to continue sharing that exploring attitude with our kids in our everyday lives, and with this book you can travel the world while remaining snuggled up on your sofa!
The book is absolutely packed with information. From the basics of the different ways islands form and ways they differ geologically, through the methods humans use to create islands, to all the many cultures and animals that live on them all, there’s just so much knowledge there! It’s in a super kid-friendly layout, with each page having just a few small, easily digestible, paragraphs – perfect for little ones. Plus, the book is gorgeous! The illustrations are beautiful, and are informative in themselves – they give a real feel of what each island is like.
There’s a huge fold out spread in the centre with a world map, that shows the location of every island mentioned – right from the Faroe Islands in the north, to Danger Islands in the south! (My kids love a fold-out page – it means the book is a special one!) And as Amazing Islands shows islands from every continent in the world, there’s a good mix of tropical and colder climates mentioned!
The kids were very impressed by the inclusion of Svalbard – complete with an illustration of a polar bear! (They’re huge “His Dark Materials” fans!) And they loved stumbling across odd things they knew – like the Easter Island Moai, and marine iguanas on the Galapagos – and adding to their knowledge about those subjects. They found so many of their favourite animals mentioned too – crabs, rays, penguins, whales, elephant seals and so many more!
Amazing Islands is a really fab book – one I’m sure we’ll refer back to time and time again. It’s super informative, and I’m sure it will continue to spark conversations and get the kids researching different things for a long time! It’s a beautiful addition to any kid’s bookshelf. We love it!
Amazing Islands can be found at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com – as well as on the publisher’s own website
Amazing Islands was kindly gifted to us by What On Earth Books.
A Different Way To Go 