The Curious Guide to Things That Aren't: Things you can't always touch, see, or hear. Can you guess what they are?

by John Fixx, Abby Carter (Illustrations)

The Curious Guide to Things That Aren't teaches creative thinking through deductive reasoning, listening skills, and imagination. The Curious Guide to Things That Aren't features thoughtful riddles - one for each letter of the alphabet - paired with engaging illustrations that reveal and explain the answer. Each spread features a riddle with several clues about an intangible item, such as air, breath, and jokes. Kids then have to figure out the answers through detective work and a little creative reasoning. The clues on each page progress from challenging, more abstract clues to a simple, final clue that encourages the reader to turn the page to discover the answer. The book covers a broad range of themes, from science, language arts, social studies, math, music, and art. The Curious Guide to Things That Aren't teaches creative thinking through deductive reasoning, listening skills, and imagination.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Mystery, Childrens

112 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2016

Reviews

[Robin Raines-Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great riddles, great non-fiction information, and fun illustrations! Nicely done John Fixx.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a high-quality book that young children of different ages will enjoy. The format of the book consists of going through the alphabet, with one word for each letter. A 2-page spread then give clues to the word, with the next 2 pages showing the answer, an illustration of the answer, and a detailed description of the answer. The “things that aren’t” refer to the words in the book being abstract or otherwise non-ordinary nouns (love, nap, orbit, etc.) This book is geared towards children ages 7 – 10, but I think both younger and older children will enjoy this book. The clues and words vary in complexity, with “harder” words being interspersed among “easier” words. The illustrations in the book, including at times an illustration as part of the clue, will help keep the attention span of pre-readers listening to the book. The book’s hardback binding is sturdy and will stand up to frequent use.

[Dani Papadas]

This is the book I chose for my informational book. It talks about things that you cant always see, touch, or hear. They give one example for each letter of the alphabet. Each letter is also a riddle. Once you figure out the riddle, it gives you the information on that word/topic. The words can be things like pain, universe or breath. Also, on the riddle page there are a few clues in the illustrations, and on the explanation page there are great illustrations. I think this would be a really good book to have in the classroom. I used it with the boys that I nanny and they loved it, they wanted to complete the whole book. I would use it with kids from 1st to 4th probably. I think this would be a great tool to use if you have a few spare minutes or use it as a reward if the kids really liked it.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable riddles with mini OED explanations of the answers. SO much fun!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this! Part book of riddles, part non-fiction and beautifully illustrated, this is a great way to talk about the concept of intangibility.

[Jeani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this quickly today, but I can imagine my family spending quite a bit of time with it in the future. Neat.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars Okay finally a book I can rave about! Yesterday I read some really bland ones, and today I read some pretty good ones! Sadly this one took me a while to read because, it isn't a quick chapter book read, but can be read in about 20 minutes.
This was super super fun! Things that are but aren't! The only one I think is a stretch is a kiss...but what else would work for k! Gravity, Voice, love, all intangibles but real! Very cool!

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is full of riddles for every letter of the alphebet.I recomend it for ages 5-9.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and absorbing riddles about intangibles around us.

[Figgy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come.