Marc Martin's "Lots" may indeed tread the path trodden by so many other books we've seen lately on the blog. Non-Fiction books celebrating the diversity of our planet, and the many countries and cultures that make up our wonderful world are always fascinating from a children's book perspective.
Many authors and publishers take the approach of dishing up a factual breakdown of each country and the folk who live there, but we prefer something that feels a little more personal. Almost like a travelogue approach.
Marc succeeds in this by hand-painting all the detailed little illustrations depicted throughout the book, along with hand-written notes on the various interesting things you'll find in each location.
It's a serious wow, as you can see from a couple of the page spreads below (including one of our favourites, Japan):
 |
| Aiiiee! It's Gojira (Godzilla!) and a lot of beer. A fatal combination! |
 |
| The Galapagos Islands - home to many weird and wonderful animal species |
Our whistle-stop tour is a wondrous journey, and the reason this book succeeds so beautifully is because it's so good for such a wide range of ages. From the very very young kids who will love looking at the colourful illustrations and learning a bit more about our world, to older kids like Charlotte who love the (sometimes quite cheeky) humour in the illustrations.
It's utterly fabulous and once again proof positive that non-fiction books can be utterly entrancing and mesmerising, just as the best picture books can be.
Charlotte's best bit: Kawaii cute things in Japan (lord help my wallet if we ever make it over there and she sees the real kawaii stuff in all the shops over there)
Daddy's favourite bit: Brilliant illustrations to make your jaw drop, a metric ton of fascinating facts and figures about each country and culture, and a really large dose of brilliant humour to keep things buzzing along.
"Lots" by Marc Martin is published on 23rd February 2017 by Big Picture Press (kindly supplied for review).