I was just wondering if I was the only one who remembers these books? They were children’s books on a variety of historical and science topics that were organized as a group of questions and answers.
Some of the topics --especially some of the historical ones-- were boring to my young self but when I was a kid I loved them and directly credit them with how well I did in elementary school. There only web site I have found covering is this one:
No, I remember them too. There was a characteristic style of drawing (they never seemed to have photos, which would have been much cheaper, I’m guessing) that I get nostalgic for. My favourite as a kid was one related to space exploration. It had cool illustrations of the X-15, and something called the Dyna-Soar - a manned re-usable vehicle which was promoted as the Next Big Thing in space flight, but which was obviously abandoned (presumably in favour of the shuttle). It was pretty much just advertising for NASA, but I loved it!
The book on “Dinosaurs”. I remember my father taking me and my sister to the American Museum of Natural History and after being wowed by the dinosaurs, Dad bought me this book (my sister got a chameleon). I later had several other books of the series but “Dinosaurs” was my favorite.
I would amaze my teachers with the knowledge these books contained…I even built some of the devices they talked about (back when chemistry sets contained lethal compounds, and nobody blinked an eye).
Absolutely!! I remember having several–my favorites, the ones on birds, butterflies, and sea shells. I had forgotten about these. Now I’ll have to go looking on ebay! After a thread on here about childhood favorites I was able to track down a copy of my beloved “Wonders of the Animal Kingdom”.
I don’t know about a series like that, but the magazine Zoobooks does it for animals. They advertise on TV and sell it in the zoos around here. I found it fascinating when MilliCal subscribed to it.
Another series I miss is the [BGolden Guides**:
These are still around, but fewer of them are available:
I had: Rocks and Minerals, Dogs and the Ballet one. I forgot all about these until I looked at your link. They were pretty interesting and informative and I learned a bit from them.
I used them to pass my Boy Scout tests. But my favorite was the Fossils guide, which I used to identify the fossils I found behind my house. sadly, nothing really interesting – bryozoans and the like.
It’s one of the few still in print, and MilliCal now has a copy of the new Fossils guide.
Had some as a kid in the 70’s. Apart from the scientific ones I had one on The First World War detailing “the scrap of paper”, the Lefayette Escadrille, the development of tanks, poison gas and flamethrowers. Amongst others, including, IIRC, “the hell of Kut.”
