As we near the end of 1988, we have had almost a year to review and evaluate the non-fiction offerings of 1987.
Illustrations are informative and related to the text.
Most important to the young researcher, a good index makes information retrieval easy and even fun. Other valuable features may include glossaries, bibliographies for further reading, and suggested activities for the reader. Presentation of material is less linear, with tangential topics, anecdotes, and odd facts breaking up the text. This fragmented approach can be attractive or chaotic depending on the designer, but seems to reflect television's quick episodes and commercial breaks and our assumption of a resulting short attention span. All of the following books show some evidence of this trend.