From people who smell armpits for a living to grass that grows on cars-and needs to be mowed, Time For Kids That's Strange But True! takes an offbeat and very kid-appealing look at the workings and fascinating oddities of the natural world as well as offbeat human behaviour and talents. The book's editorial mission is to show kids 8 -12 that planet Earth is filled with the odd, the weird, and the wacky-both natural, human and human made. It will encourage readers to learn more about the subjects presented, and to spur kids to find examples of strange-but-true phenomena in their own communities.

The book, organized by subject, will feature colorful photos that will bring to life the unusual world of the animal kingdom (lizards that walk on water and insects that can live without their head), the human body (hair and nails grow after a person dies), science oddities (teleportation devices and telepathy), and much much more!

Hardcover containing 176 pages.

Illustrated by Ute Fuhr and Raoul Sautai

The pond is full of animal life! Spot the pond-dwellers in the watery scene. Then take a closer look at them through the magnifying glass in the transparent pages! From the unique Close Up series, this fun book allows children to discover more about animal life in a familiar habitat by looking through the included press-out magnifying glass at the stunning illustrations.

Spiral bound book containing 38 pages.

By Lia Foa

This stunning box is an ideal introduction to crystals and gemstones! Open the lid to reveal a 6-compartment display case, each compartment holding an assortment of polished gemstones. Kids will learn how to sort and identify each of the stones in their collection. Beneath the display case, they’ll find the Little Book of Crystals and Gemstones, filled with fascinating facts about more than 50 crystals and gemstones. It identifies each stone by name and describes some of the stone's unique properties. Also included are tweezers for examining stones, and a miniature geode - a stone with tiny crystals that are naturally embedded on its surface.

Included softcover book contains 48 pages.

By Pat Murphy and the Scientists of Klutz Labs

This book comes with all the plastic pieces, paper parts, and special pages you need to experience 25 impossible things. These objects work like magic, but there are no tricks. All this weirdness has a solid scientific basis and we tell you why — from the mathematically amazing Möbius strip (a band of paper with only one side), to cardstock acrobats with amazing balance, to a colour-changing spinning top.

Comes with: wobblestone, hinged monster-making mirrors, acetate animations viewer, a variety of custom-designed cardstock curiosities (optical spinners, balancing acrobats, transforming sign, 3D stare-o-saurus, phenakistoscope wheel, flexagon labyrinth)

Paperback contains 48 pages.

By Ben Grossblatt

Cross a hands-on science kit with prank props and whatdo you get? Gotcha Gadgets - a set of customizable, constructable electronic gizmos, along with an entire book of games, pranks, and jokes that make the most of them. All you need to add is one 9-volt battery and a healthy mischievous streak.

Klutz-clear explanations of the principles of electronic circuitry accompany step-by-step instructions on how to wire (and re-wire) your own door alarm, motion sensor, light sensor, and push-button device. For each gizmo, pick from a library of sounds: wild applause, a scream, the classic sad trombone, or a 'whoopee cushion'.

Requires one 9 V battery (NOT INCLUDED).

Hardcover contains 32 pages.

By Allen Kurzweil and Son

Mmmmm, science! Irresistibly packaged inside a potato chip bag, Potato Chip Science is the wildly imaginative book and kit that introduces 29 experiments using potato chips, potatoes and chip bags, tubes, and lids. Make a chip that can gobble like a turkey. Ready and fire the pocket-size potato propulsion pipe. Build a balloon-powered chip train. Hook up a working digital clock to the mysterious potato "battery".

Create a shrunken potato head. Set off the bag blaster - and when the weather's right, go fly a chip bag kite! The book is filled with experiments, interesting modifications, and scientific principles. In addition, more than a dozen items used in the "snacktivities" are packaged in the bag: the digital clock, a 100% biodegradable, child-friendly lab knife, caliper gauge, googly eyes, magnet, fingerprint brush, and more. Remember: when it comes to Potato Chip Science experiments, nobody can test just one!

Softcover containing 96 pages.

This set of cards contains 50 of the most amazing optical illusions ever created. You can turn over each card to discover some of the secrets behind the illusions. Can you see what’s inside each one? They start off looking like a pretty picture that seems to make your eyes play tricks on you - but wait! They are playing tricks on you! But it turns out that they're pretty neat tricks! See for yourself! Find out and have fun with your discoveries.

Each measure approximately 6” x 4”.

by "Dino" Don Lessim, Illustrated by Franco Tempesta

In the crowded field of dinosaur books, this is the very first to offer children ages 7 to 10—those at the height of their enthusiasm for the prehistoric giants—complete coverage of all the known dinosaurs. Don Lessem, author of more than 60 books—most of them about dinosaurs—teams up with Franco Tempesta, a talented illustrator with a fresh and appealing style. The exciting result is an accessible, visually stunning book that’s packed with facts that kids can use to impress their friends and families. The Ultimate Dinopedia is organized by the periods that are well known to young enthusiasts: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. It includes almost every dinosaur ever discovered, and highlights 125 species that scientists know sufficiently to describe in rich detail. Special features include How We Know What They Looked Like, Baby Dinosaurs, Great Dinosaur Goofs, and much more. Every featured dino gets a fact box that delivers important information at a glance—Scientific Name, Discoverer, Place and Date of Discovery, Length, Habitat, Diet, Fossils, Fun Facts, and Range Map. This book provides—in fabulously illustrated, kid-friendly form—all the information an 8-year-old fact hound needs to lord that knowledge over parents and teachers!

Hardcover containing 272 pages.

National Geographic brings you 1000 wild and wacky facts and photos that prove truth really is stranger than fiction! With a colourful, metallic cover, a kid-friendly design, and a wacky sense of humor, this stunning book will give kids a winning combination of smarts and fun!

Enjoy hundreds of snack-size stories about weird animals, space vacations, wacky inventions, freaky weather, amazing feats, wild extreme sports, and more. Plus, "Ultimate Secrets Revealed", explaining the strange truth behind the most mind-bending facts, like how it's possible to convert peanut butter into a diamond and how frogs can fall from the sky!

You'll discover:

• A dog that can read
• A mouse that hitched a ride on a frog's back
• Tornadoes of fire
• A motorcycle shaped like hamburger
• A 13-foot-tall pink poodle
• ...And much, much more!

Hardcover containing 192 pages.

By Kathy Wollard, Illustrated by Debra Solomon

Maybe the first "How come?" question is "How come these books do so well?" And the answer is in how they cater to every boy and girl's insatiable curiosity about the world around them! Crack science writer Kathy Wollard answers 125 sneakily simple questions that ambush even the most erudite moms and dads. Like: "Why do apples turn brown when cut?", "Why do we get dizzy from spinning around on the playground?" or "How can a fly walk up the kitchen wall?".

The 125 questions are all derived from the experiences central to a kid's world - stuff that happens at home, in the backyard, at school, on vacation. There are the inevitable insect questions - "Why do bees die after they sting someone?" (the honeybee's stinger is barbed, and can't detach from the bee without pulling out its venom sac, a fatal injury). Food questions - "Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" (a fruit, in fact a berry). Science questions - "We used dry ice in our school play to make fog. How does it do that?" (unlike water, carbon dioxide goes straight from gas to solid and back - when frozen as dry ice, it "melts" into fog). And the classic: "Why can't we tickle ourselves?" (tickling depends on the element of surprise, and the brain can't surprise itself).

Softcover containing 304 pages.

By David Burnie, Illustrated by Julian and Janet Baker

There is an incredible diversity of life on Earth, from microscopic, single-celled organisms, to giant redwoods and blue whales. The Kingfisher Nautre Encyclopedia is an authoritative and beautifully illustrated guide for the whole family to our world and its inhabitants - both flora and fauna.

Includes a stunning introduction to the planet, its inhabitants, and wildlife habitats. Explores every major plant and animal group on Earth, includes more than 1,000 breathtaking photographs and illustrations, with a special features highlight, to particular specifices and their lifestyles and characteristics. Includes a glossary and general index, and is an excellent reference for the whole family!

Hardcover, containing 320 pages.

Any questions? We’ve got the answers right here in a book that will take parents off the hook with their children: TIME For Kids BIG Book of Why answers the questions that kids commonly ask and adults can rarely answer. Why do we have eyebrows? What’s a black hole and what happens if you fall into one? What’s the fastest a human is capable of running? Why do wet fi ngers stick to metal in the freezer? Where is the deepest point on Earth? Divided by subject area—humans, animals, environment/nature, technology, and space—and written in an upbeat manner, each answer is accompanied by either a photo or an illustration to show the reasons why. Of course, TIME For Kids goes beyond answering the question by dipping into the science or history to further explain the answer in an easy-to-follow, straightforward manner. This is a must-have book to satisfy the most curious of kids and provides a great way to encourage interest and knowledge about a wide range of subjects, as well as to stimulate reading. Kids will be desperate to share what they’ve learned with their parents, teachers, and friends...and anyone else who will listen.

Hard cover including 192 pages.

By David Eckold

Make science spring to life with a whir of motors, levers, gears, axles, and propellers! With 6 kinetic alien monsters to build and a science-packed companion book, this kit both feeds the imagination and explains all the physics and theories behind what makes the models work. This kit will teach children about physics, mechanics, forces, and motion without them even realizing it!

Become a cosmic scientist! Together the models and the companion book illustrate in a lively and clear way how core scientific principles make things work, from thrust and friction to gravity and lift. And when kids have finished building their robot, they can decorate it with the included cool add-on card pieces that allow for hours of customizing fun!

Includes: 2 motors, 1 axle, 2 battery holders, 1 propeller, 2 rivets, 4 foam discs, 25 card parts and 1 science book.

Hardcover containing 30 pages.

Requires 2 AA batteries (NOT INCLUDED).

By Hugh Danks

Kids are crazy about bugs! And kids and parents alike are crazy about the Bug Book and Bug Bottle. Packed with activities and packaged in its own collecting bottle, the full-colour book provides field notes to 47 bugs arranged by habitat, including pond, forest, ground, leaves, field, and flower. The ingeniously designed, safe plastic bottle is perfect for catching and viewing creepy crawlies, then letting them go unharmed(this is a bug kit with a conscience)!

Written by entomologist Hugh Danks, the Bug Book gives comprehensive information about these fascinating creatures - how they live, what they eat, unusual characteristics, and more. It offers simple, clear guidelines on how to collect and care for bugs, and equally helpful hints on which bugs not to catch. New to the kit are a fold-out bug chart for quick identification, a magnifier to see the critters up close, and a bug explorer's journal to record discoveries.

Discover how the whirligig beetle got its name, why fireflies light up, and how water striders walk on water. And then impress parents and friends - here are all the tools kids need to become bona fide bug experts!

Includes: The Bug Book, ventilated bug container with ruler lid, magnifiying glass, bug identification chart and bug journal.

Softcover containing 112 pages.

Perfect for getting children out into the open air to discover nature, this colourful, easy and fun bird guide is ideal for beginning birders! DK Spot the Bird covers more than 100 of the most common North American birds. Each page features one bird, along with a full-colour photograph and clear, concise text to pick out the main identifying features.

Colourful symbols let young naturalists know what the bird eats, where it lives, how many eggs it lays, and whether it will be seen alone or in flocks. To add fun to the challenge of spotting them, all the birds have stickers - when children spot the bird, they can add their sticker!

Softcover containig 120 pages.

By Lonely Planet

A whirlwind tour of the globe, seeking out the highest, deepest, widest, narrowest, coolest, hottest, scariest ... things on the planet! What's the longest place name? The oldest fossil? Most treacherous road in the world and why? Most dangerous food to eat? Scariest place to stand because you're most likely to be struck by lightning? It's all here in this Not-for-Parents book!

containing 192 pages.

By National Geographic

Presenting the next must-have, fun-filled gift book from the team that createdUltimate Weird But True, 5,000 Cool Facts About Everything treats kids to brain candy and eye candy all rolled into one treasure trove of high-interest fascinating facts!

A visual feast of 1200 colourful photographs surrounded by swirling, tipping, expanding, and climbing bits of information in a high-energy design, this book will satisfy both the casual browser and the truly fact obsessed.

Hardcover containing 224 pages.