Енциклопедия на обикновените неща

by Štěpánka Sekaninová, Щепанка Секанинова, Елена Кодинова (Translator)

Те са навсякъде около нас. Използваме ги всекидневно, минаваме край тях, а никога не спираме, за да се замислим над въпроса откъде са дошли. Кои са те, ще попитате?

Най-обикновените неща на света, разбира се. Например обувките, чадърите, четките и клечките за зъби, чорапите, куклите и така нататък, и така нататък. Откъде са дошли? Кой ги е изобретил, как са създадени и по какъв начин са се променяли във времето? Ако ви е любопитно да узнаете, тогава непременно прочетете тази книга и научете тяхната история.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

88 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2020

Reviews

[Книжни Криле · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ваканция е. Почивате си в сянката на чадъра, разположили сте се удобно в хамак... И дори не ви хрумва да се замислите от къде са се взели подобни предмети в бита ни! Факт, че сме заобиколени от хиляди неща, които приемаме за абсолютна даденост - гениално прости приспособления, чието съществуване е толкова естествено, сякаш винаги ги е имало. Но без значение дали вярвате или не, все някой е трябвало да се сети дори за привидно елементарни открития, като… клечките за зъби например! Друг път пък се оказва, че хрумки, които сме считали за сравнително съвременни нововъведения, са всъщност далеч по-древни, отколкото сме си представяли. С интересни истории и куриозни факти за куп такива предмети е пълна „Енциклопедия на обикновените неща” (изд. „Прозорец”). Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле": https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/202...

[Val Stoeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Доста интересни факти за често употребявани предмети от бита.

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the historical facts about everyday items are interesting, I was disappointed in the lack of any sort of references. In school settings, librarians are constantly trying to teach the concept of attribution of sources, I can't recommend a book that doesn't have at least a basic list of references. I also was disappointed in the lack of a global focus. There were very few mentions of non-European developments related to the different objects described.

The actual list of items included seemed rather random as did their arrangement. For example, shoes and skates were included in the beginning; tights at the end of the book. Obviously no book like this can include all objects, but it would have been helpful to have a note from the author explaining her reason for her choices.

Some young readers will enjoy poring over this title. However, it's not recommended for school libraries nor for use in any sort of research.

Review based on an e-ARC received through NetGalley.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Encyclopedia of Ordinary Things, written by Štepánka Sekanivová and illustrated by Eva Chupíková, relates the history of an eclectic group of items, including shoes, umbrellas, glasses, toilets, dolls, and a few others, nearly a dozen in total. The information is interesting enough, nicely bolstered by a large number of stylized illustrations, but overall it’s a bit hit and miss, relies at times a bit too much on speculation, lacks diversity, and is occasionally a few too tethered to gender roles.

As noted, the selection is a bit random and there’s little sense of organization or connection. The text is pretty brief, though it offers up some interesting tidbits, like ancient pacifiers in the shape of animals that dispensed honey as babies sucked on them (that’ll keep ‘em quiet!). They do remain tidbits though, and so the book has a bit of a trivia feel to it, though you do get a sense of progression/evolution through time of some objects given more page space, such as shoes and umbrellas.

The illustrations are numerous and have a throw-back feel to them. Unfortunately, just about all the human figures pictured are white. And while there is some mention of other cultures, it’s relatively scant. In the same vein, women come off as heavily focused on make-up, perfume, and dolls. The doll section, for instance, speaks solely of girls playing with dolls and opens with “When a small girl has a birthday, guess what she gets? A doll most likely, several of them if she’s lucky.” Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a young girl get a doll for her birthday. And it closes with how dolls “show little girls what it’s like to be a mom and take care of a baby.” Which is certainly true, though a bit of balance would have been good, such as how dolls were also used to practice sewing (not just to teach them how to be “good women”) or how boys played with toy soldiers (not really different from dolls).

In the end, I’d say The Encyclopedia of Ordinary Things is a good book to take out of the library for curious kids. But similar books exist out there that do a better job.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Encyclopedia of the Ordinary Things" is about the history of ten common items and is targeted at ages 6-12 years old. The author covered skates, umbrellas, glasses, dolls, perfume, horse toys, toilets, toothbrushes, beds, and tights. Each item had several pages describing how the item changed throughout history and appeared in different cultures. It's not a lot of information, though, since illustrations took up half of the page space. These illustrations were stylistic rather than highly accurate. Each section concluded with two pages of related items, usually focusing on the inventor of the item (Velcro, zippers, skies, etc.). These were very brief so that several items would fit on each page.

I was disappointed that the author put in speculation when I would have preferred facts. For example, when explaining: "The soles of some prehistoric shoes were made from bear skin....Our ancestors believed that bear skin would give them the strength of the feared animal and protect them." How do we know what they believed? We don't. Prehistory means they didn't leave writing saying this. It's just a guess. I felt like it was misleading to call this book an encyclopedia due to how few items were covered, the speculation included, and the stylistic illustrations. The items weren't even listed in alphabetical order. If you just want a brief overview on these objects, though, it did have some interesting trivia. Maybe it should be named "Trivia about Ordinary Things."

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... It's a good idea to broaden the thinking of the young student in making them consider the history of mundane things like beds and toys, or the throwaway such as toilet paper, but I don't think this was a perfect way to do it. In short chunks – just a couple of paragraphs per spread at most, and the relevant asides and captions – we're given very bitty slices of history, and with no context (or definition of the Renaissance, etc) it doesn't always work. There are instances of too many rhetorical questions being used as a 'style', and how humdrum really is the ice-skate? It's not as routine around the world as a properly useful book like this would realise.

Things are better when we get to the final spread concerning shoes, as an example – when we see info around and only loosely connected to the main topic. So for shoes we learn about the history of velcro and the safety pin among other fasteners, but even then – when skipping ropes get lumped in with skates – the subjects don't always work together. Finally, add on the on-trend errant fashion for placing the text in a way that means you can't be sure which order to read it (perfume might as well be read with the right-hand page before the left), and you have something that needs too much adult intervention and supervision with before it is a great lesson-giver on its own. Two and a half stars.

[Deviant Quill Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.deviantquill.com/.../ency......
The perfect little book to answer the most asked question: "Why?"
Every parent knows that children don't stop asking this question after they learned it. All of us were probably stuck at one point trying to answer. This encyclopedia has answers to a bunch of questions related to objects in our everyday life, such as beds, shoes, toilets, toothbrushes, toys, umbrellas, and so many more. The illustrations are fun and engaging. The visual chronology showing how things changed throughout the centuries is perfect for curious little minds. Amusing little facts are sprinkled all over the encyclopedia, making it fun to read and understand.
What's even better is that you'll learn together with your child. I was today-years-old when I found out the high-fashion of toys in Ancient Egypt were dolls made to resemble mummies.

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the sort of thing I would have absolutely loved when I was a curious, knowledge seeking child. Beautiful pictures. Would make a wonderful holiday gift.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read for children and adults! You're learn all about the history of ordinary things like shoes, umbrellas, beds, bathtubs. Great illustrations make this a very enjoyable read! The grandkids loved it!

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss

This was very interesting, and I know I wrote a review because the picture of the spring house wasn't quite what I was used to seeing in Ohio. Can't find the review anywhere. Sigh.

[Detski Knigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Свежа, интересна, с добре подбрана и ясно поднесена информация за предмети от бита, които използваме редовно, а не знаем много за произхода им.

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.