Ref Rap: New Reference Books

1001 Children's Books you must read before you grow up
Call Number: 011.62ONE
Available at: Sutherland, Cronulla, Engadine, Miranda, Menai and Caringbah Reference. One lending copy available at Sutherland.

Following on from the very popular 1001 Books you must read before you die, this book covers a very long list of popular children's titles you apparently 'must read before you grow up' (if that's the case then I won't be growing up anytime soon).
Flicking through it is like taking a trip down memory lane - you're bound to come across at least one book you read in childhood and the memories will come flooding back. If you find you've read none of the titles listed then I'm guessing you grew up under a rock - not that I have anything against rocks. The Book is divided into 5 chapters covering different age groups: 0-3, 3+, 5+, 8+ and 12+. Each entry includes short details about the publication year, the author/illustrator (along with their nationality and year of birth), the publisher, theme of the story and awards the book has won. The entries themselves include information on the storyline and reasons why the title is worth reading. Some entries contain interesting details about the authors inspiration, for example, Eric Carle came up with the idea of creating the enlarging holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar by playing with a hole punch (see, I knew there was a reason I play with random inanimate objects when I should be studying). There are also the occasional unusual facts e.g. some moralists considered the Cat in the Hat to be a force of evil (apparently the devil has a new form). It also includes very personal book reviews written by contemporary popular authors. The impressive thing about this book is that it doesn't just cover the classics - it includes titles that were published as late as 2008 (including Twilight). The titles are also written by authors of a variety of nationalities including a number of Australians such as Ethel Turner, Jackie French and John Marsden. Overall, it's a good resource to use if you'd like to know more about your favourite children's books or if you've got a child in front of you and neither one of you has any idea what they should read next (the theme section of each entry can be particularly helpful for this). Now I'm just expecting '1001 annoying vampire teen romance novels you must read before you die' to be published soon (don't mind me, I've just developed a severe dislike of the emerging genre).

Pocket World in Figures
2010 Edition
Call Number: 310POC
Available at: Sutherland, Cronulla, Caringbah, Engadine, Sylvania, Menai and Miranda branches

Did you know that Australia has the 3rd highest number of beer drinkers? We are equal with Germany and beaten by the Czech Republic and Venezuela (who would have thought). Did you also know that France sleeps the most, Turkey eats the most and Mexico watches the most TV? These are just some of the interesting facts I found out in the Pocket World in Figures. This is a great ready reference guide covering a wide variety of world facts and figures. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 covers world rankings. The number of categories ranked are too numerous to list here but they include murders, highest marriage rates, largest aid donors, HIV/AIDS prevalence and death and obesity rates. Part 2 includes country profiles. It covers information about the people, economy, employment, energy, exchange rates, trade, health, education and society. It also contains a glossary, a short list of countries with brief facts and a list of sources used. My main objection is that specific sources are not cited for each table of data making information difficult to follow up. Nevertheless, this resource is very interesting and good to use. It states the years covered by the data and outlines factors that might influence it. It would be particularly useful for students doing social research (e.g. on world obesity figures) that need to compare several countries (can I add that according to this book Lebanon and Qatar take the number 1 prize for obesity levels of men and women respectively - not the US or Australia, contrary to popular belief). If you have a spare moment, have a look through it and see what interests you.

In the meantime, if you come across any other reference books that have been particularly helpful, by all means share your thoughts in the comments box below.

Karen B.