Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Planet Eccentric
Grade 3-7–The cover challenges readers to Take a look at the world's weirdest facts, and the interior text and attention-grabbing color photos do not disappoint. This is an encyclopedic volume of oddities fromRipley'svast collection. A history of the collection created byNew York Globesports columnist Robert Ripley in 1928 to the present anchors the main text of the book. Categories include Off the Wall, Animal Antics, Taking Life to Extremes, and Life in the Fast Lane, creating a reality TV fan's dream. Random globe icons highlight unusual laws of the U.S. in the midst of a listing of the facts. The illustrations, however, may not be the best choice for impressionable or unsupervised children. The Was That a Good Idea? section pictures a performance artist doing handstands at 3000 feet. The Totally Obsessed chapter features the world's most pierced woman and insertion of nylon threads through eye ducts; All-Consuming highlights pictures of Matthew Biancaniello eating just about anything. Fascinating fare for the Fear Factor generation, but not for the weak-stomached, this volume delivers more than its share of weirdness, but buyer beware.–Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TXCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.