A fun read for inquiring minds

Struggling to get your child to read something? Perhaps your “good reader” is bored with the same old fare? Either way, inside “Time for Kids Big Book of Where” is where you’ll want to point his nose.

“Time for Kids Big Book of Where” is a fun book pumped full of informative facts that will educate while entertaining kids. With “Time,” kids will learn where their trash goes each week, each year, and during their lifetime.

They’ll learn where the largest Mayan city was once located. They’ll read about a place where gigantic, thousand-year-old statues are waiting for a visit, and where there are huge cities underground. They’ll also find out which countries hold more than a billion people and which are the smallest countries in the world.

Let’s say your child likes to build and invent things; he loves to create towers with his LEGOs. Now, he’ll learn where they were invented. He’ll find out where microchips and transistors originated, and where on Earth is Silicon Valley.

With this book in his hands, he’ll know exactly where Africa is splitting apart. He’ll know where the largest diamond, ever, was found (and where it is today). Kids will know where to go to breathe the purest air in the world, and where NOT to go if they want to avoid the world’s most poisonous snakes and bugs. They’ll find out where they’ll need to speak 800 languages to keep up, and where the world’s newest island is poking out of the sea.

Packed with fun facts and lots of full-color pictures and drawings, this book has a little something for just about every kid: bugs, vehicles, mysteries, art, nature, science, animals. There’s even something for sports fans, and obviously, for kids who love to travel. I like that informational diversity, because it can lead young readers to find other areas of interest — something for which your child’s teachers will be very thankful this fall.

While it’s meant for 8-to-12-year-olds, I think that, with parental help, slightly younger children will want to open this book, too. For any kid with a curious mind, in fact, “Time for Kids Big Book of Where” is a shoo-in.

“Time for Kids Big Book of Where” by Time Home Entertainment [192 pages, 2013, $19.99].

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.