Dan Marshall, No Way! The Wildest Mind-Blowing Facts in the Universe, Pantera Press, September 2021, 364 pp., RRP $29.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648677024
I love a good information book and No Way! The Wildest Mind-Blowing Facts in the Universe is an excellent information book. Notabled in the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall category, No Way! is packed full of interesting and exciting facts about just about everything. With chapters titled Space, Humans, Earth, Science, Animals and Maths it presents information on a dizzying array of subjects.
Ideal for dipping in and out of, the text is set out with a new topic on each double page spread. Graphic illustrations are used to draw the reader’s attention to the various facts associated with each topic. The text also includes many figures and comparisons for example, Olympus Mons, the largest volcano on Mars, is three times the height of Mount Everest at an epic 22 kilometres.
Each section also contains ‘challenges’, for example in the Animals section readers are challenged to measure 15° with a protractor or compass and then pretend to be a pig and look no higher than that. Because as you may have guessed pigs cannot lift their heads above 15°.
In an age where most information can be found on the internet the usefulness of information books is often questioned. However, when you read a quality information book like No Way! there is no question about why readers still purchase and love these texts. In a matter of days, I could read about a vast array of subjects with no ads, no dodgy pop ups and no need to question the veracity of the information provided.
An excellent resource for young (and not so young) people who love to start sentences with ‘Did you know…?’ before recounting some extraordinary facts, No Way! is suitable for readers aged 10+ years. This title would make a valuable addition to personal and school libraries.
Reviewed by Anne Varnes