Written by today's experts for the experts of tomorrow, Eyewitness Experts are great big gift packs that blitz the top-selling topics children really love. Open them up and you'll find everything you need to nurture their interest, whether novice or nerd. These are gifts to treasure and return to and grow with.

Who needs a whole book on knots? Campers, anglers, and weekend first mates to name a few, and they would be doing themselves a great favor checking out this wonderfully illustrated guide to knot tying. Need a secure loop tied in the middle of a rope during your next camping trip? Bowline on the Bight to the rescue. Lash a canoe firmly in place atop your car? A clove hitch, maybe, though the smart move is to add one more loop to create the nearly immovable constrictor knot. Each knot is presented with step-by-step photos and concise instructions, and even the novice will be able to whip out surgeon's knots and Italian hitches before they know it--as this reviewer can attest!

DK eyewitness books are some of the greatest non-fiction books around. The distinctive white background and high-quality photography gives this book an edge over any other nonfiction picture book. And -- these pictures are real! They're beautiful museum-quality photos of all things related to knights, accompanied by informative captions and text.

Learn about medieval life, knights, armor, etc. If you know someone (young or old) who is fascinated by medieval times and knights, then you must introduce them to this book!

 

Covering creation, the cosmos, the sun and moon, supreme beings, floods, the natural world, fertility and birth, ancestor worship, forces of evil, divine weapons, war, spirits, love and happiness, tricksters, idols, mythical beasts, death, and the end of the world, this book leaves few stones unturned. Collected from museums worldwide, lavish photos of figurines, paintings, mosaics, masks, textiles, and other treasures display a veritable gallery of culture within these pages. Philip points out similarities of world myths and provides quite a bit of introductory information, though the sound-bite presentation that makes this series so popular cannot go into the detail that the subject deserves. There is no sense that any of the practices, such as shamanism, still exist, and the overall tone of the book is rather patriarchal. Report writers may glean a few facts, but will have to look further for more information or for the actual stories mentioned. The wealth of illustration far outweighs the literary value, but as a browsing tool, this is bound to be used.

There are more than 400,000 types of plants, and they include the tallest, heaviest, and oldest living things on Earth. Together, they make up the plant kingdom, one of the five kingdoms of living things. Like animals, plants need energy to survive and to grow, but they get it from sunlight instead of from food. Life on Earth depends on plants. All animals eat plants or plant-eaters. As a by-product of making their own food, plants release oxygen—the gas that all animals need to breathe.