FACTopia! Series; Paige Towler, Julie Beer, illustrated by Andy Smith

The FACTopia! series is non-fiction awesomeness and the latest two books bring the series to four and a total of sixteen-hundred mind-blowing facts that cover anything and everything.

Gross FACTopia! Follow the Trail of 400 Foul Facts

Welcome to Gross FACTopia! where things are about to get delightfully disgusting. Prepare to be grossed out as you uncover the ickiest, stickiest, creepiest, crawliest and most revoltingly stupendous facts in the world. Did you know your body has the ability to spew vomit further than a car? Have you heard of the man who squirted milk from his eye? Would your eyes pop out your sockets if you knew how starfish eat? Got the guts for four-hundred stomach-churning facts…

Animal FACTopia! Follow the Trail of 400 Beastly Facts

Welcome to Animal FACTopia! and a world full of facts about cool critters, incredible insects, amazing amphibians and awesome animals. Take an epic journey through the animal kingdom and get up close and personal with the feathery and furry, scaly and slimy, creepy and cute, delightful and deadly. Meet hand-standing pandas, screaming otters, millions of mites, indestructible beetles, playful monkeys, lizards that can run on water and a whole host of others. Things are about to get wild…

Hop, slither and fly into Animal Factopia! or grab your vomit bag and pinch your nose and prepare to be utterly revolted in the land of Gross Factopia!. Whichever you choose in this brilliantly zany series you are in for an absolute fact-filled, eye-popping, mind-boggling extravaganza. 

FACTopia! is non-fiction like you’ve never seen it before, giving you the option to read linearly or choose your own adventure by taking one of the many different pathways that hop to different pages. The chance to take one of the many alternative routes gives the reader complete autonomy in their non-fiction adventure and curiosity often got the better of me and had me taking an unexpected diversion.

Within the books are four-hundred weird and wonderful facts about the world in which we live, each one somehow connected to the one before it in often the most surprising of ways. Who would’ve thought that pee could lead to gross explosions or that beetles would link to animal tech. This veritable smorgasbord of information is a fact-lovers dream and children’s minds will be a buzz as they devour beastly facts about a record-breaking cow, an escape artist penguin and glow-in-the-dark insects, and discover disgusting details on blood, brains and burping.

What I love so much about this fresh, original and completely unique series is not just the amount of research that has been put into accumulating all of the facts - each one has been verified by Britannica - but also the time, thought and creativity that has clearly been given to page layouts. In these unique encyclopaedias, bite-sized chunks of information sit on brightly coloured and engaging pages that pop with vibrant artwork.

I’m a sucker for little known facts, bizarre information and random details so this series is a hit with me. They are a far cry from the rather dry and heavy going non-fiction reads that I had access to at school in the 80’s. These are innovative, visually appealing and crammed with the kind of things that kids love to read about making them perfect for key stage two classrooms.

Bright covers and luminous fonts have them standing out from the crowd and readers will be arguing over who gets to read first. With a mammoth assortment of fascinating and frightening facts, these latest additions to the series guarantee giggles, gasps and the odd scream (Gross FACTopia! is definitely not for the squeamish) and will have children desperate to share the facts with anyone who will listen. Brilliant stuff!

Recommended for 8+.

With huge thanks to Walker for the copies I received in exchange for honest reviews.