Horrible Science Annual 2012 product reviews

Okay, I thought that the Horrible Science magazines were okay, but the annual ROCKED! The cover was simple, but it was still rather cool. The first part of the annual was a real copycat, the first three pages were the intro from one of the magazines! Some of the pages in this book were truly awful, they made my mind go "EWWWWWW! That is SO gross!", but luckily it wasn't enough to make me sick (thank goodness).

There were a few of the facts in this book absolutely blew me away, like the fact that there was a type of piano that actually played music by itself! The sort of unbelievable facts this book contained were indeed rather interesting, and disgusting in some cases, but the fact that there were self-playing pianos and an instrument that was played by waving you arms around are probably the coolest things you could hear about; a huge thumbs up for Horrible Science!

I would say that this thing is good for any kids over 8 years old, this is THE book to get if you want to learn about science, the kids will love reading this (the book that is, not this review)!

With a title like "Horrible Science", anyone with kids, often especially boys, knows that this is near guaranteed to get kids interested right off the bat.

While mine are a little young for this and I suppose I'm not in the target age range either, I found this a really great and interesting read. Lets be honest, the more gross something is the more we can't help but read about it.

I loved the interesting way science was presented, cartoons, puzzles, multi-choice questions - if science had been this interesting in school I may have paid far more attention.

Throughout the book there are science experiments that kids can do (with adult help of course). As a tactile learner this is something I appreciate, being able to do instead of just read about, is such a great way to reinforce what you're learning and for the knowledge to stick in your memory.

Something else that I love is how easy it is to pick up and put down this book, even as an adult reading it, I actually enjoyed picking it up and flicking through it, picking bits and pieces of knowledge here and there.

Finally I also love that I now know what causes an ice-cream headache and how to cure it. I can see this being a big hit with the kids as they get older and would definitely add to the collection.

Horrible Science was a spin off from the original book series of Horrible Histories. I was really excited to get this book, because as a child I had a lot of great memories of receiving an "Annual" for Christmas. Those "Annuals" were always full of stories, fun facts and activities that would fill my Christmas holidays with new and exciting things to do.

The first thing I noticed about the Horrible Science Annual was the bright cover art. The green gloppy alien really stands out and makes you think of science-fiction/space and yucky stuff as well. A perfect introduction to the contents of the book. Inside the pages are really bright as well, with lots of great illustrations. I liked the layout of some of the stories in comic style strips as well. It made it feel easy to read. Other sections were not as easy to read, as you had to follow numbers on an image and then find the associated text.

Because the subjects inside are guaranteed 100% horrible (and they are), I think this will easily appeal to children. My own child is a little young to read this herself, but she was really interested in one incredibly gross section about food poisoning. So much so, she insisted I read the page over and over again for about 2 hours. She was then able to tell our house guests that evening about her amazing body and how food poisoning makes your body work hard to get rid of the poison. Some of the concepts were a bit beyond her, but I would say ages 7 - 12 and even older would easily pick this up. Nothing like learning something while you giggle about gross gases, liquids and other weird and wonderful things.

There was one particular section on competitive eating which I found really cool to read. It made me feel a bit ill. But I had always wondered how people could sit there and eat so much in one sitting. I liked reading about why you get shake ache when you have ice cream or a milkshake - very useful information! I also liked how there were puzzles throughout so you could test your science skills and your general knowledge.

Overall I reckon this is a great read for kids, especially if they are into science, and their bodies. While I can see boys enjoying the subject matter a lot, I think girls like gross stuff just as much. If your kid loves to experiment with mouldy bread, you're probably onto a Christmas winner. The great thing about a book like this is, it can be re-read, there is so much to take in and its educational.