Rose Davidson (text) and Andy Smith (Illustrator), Science FACTopia!: Follow the Trail of 400 STEM-tastic Facts!, Walker Books, April 2024, 208 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781804660249
What a title—and with not one but two exclamation marks! This time, in the sixth of the FACTopia series, the focus is upon STEM-style facts. STEM is an approach to learning embedded in the Victorian State curriculum (with various iterations across most other states). The aim is to integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics into kids’ learning, and imbue their knowledge with problem-solving skills.
So, we have an admirable aim, but maybe one that needs to be lit up by humour, wit, creativity and plenty of adjectives, though not amplified by exclamation marks. This Britannica Book does its job admirably, and best of all it is a page-turner. The book begins at a fast pace, touching on fossils (licking them), wacky experiments with pigs and chickens, virtual reality and 3D imagery, Chinese incense clocks — and so it goes, page after odd and exciting page.
Perhaps the only downside to this boook is that you might never finish it. Though there are only 400 facts in just over 200 pages, you will find you have to know more about the snowstorms on Mars, 12 year old Mary Anning who found the first fossil, lucid dreams, and what is causing the fire that has been burning for 6000 years beneath Mount Wingen in NSW.
Readers will be going searching for even more facts. Though it might look to be too much for the human brain, you will find that the human brain loves this sort of thing once it gets a run at it. Take your brain for a ride with this book. You will both love it. Recommended for fact-finders from five to one hundred and five.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
