A Review-seum

Nick Sharratt's Super Silly Museums  (Scholastic, 2022)

You've heard of the Victoria and Albert Museum? The Natural History Museum? Well, this is my Review-seum. Here, I'll be conducting a tour of the most unique exhibits you'll find in Nick Sharratt's Super Silly Museums, a non-fiction cornucopia hiding its wonders in the pages of a book. 

"Come inside and explore!" 

 

Exhibit A: The Shoe-seum

Here you will find an INDEX of shoe types, all in ALPHABETICAL ORDER: Brogue, Espadrille, Stiletto. But look closer! Tucked in amidst all this footware are some surprise delights too: One, Two, Buckle my shoe and Puss-in-Boots.

Exhibit B: The Twoseum

Everything that comes in pairs here, and each pair riffing on the joy of VOCABULARY through WORD PLAY: "Let's SOCK it to 'em!", 'You're looking GLOVEly'.

Exhibit C: The Qseum

A lot of Q-riosities here, a CLASSIFICATION of one of the more unusual letters of the alphabet to explore: Quoll, Quesadilla, Quark, Quinoa....

Exhibit D: The Pooseum

Not *just* what you think: there's more word-play here. Don't miss the Wee-Search centre (It's 'wee-ly' good!) and the Loo-boratory's collection of peculiar loos (HullabaLOO adn WaterLOO being particular highlights. (You may wish to skip on the Fart Gallery though pff - phut - poot - toot! - brrrap!) 

Exhibit E: The Snoozeum

A CATALOGUE of nocturnal creatures - watch out for the Vampire (though he's 'dead to the world'). 

Exhibit F: The Blue-seum

A joyous exploration of the ways in which we use the word Blue. Make sure you take a good, hard look at the Blue Bottle and the Bluebottle. (And before you enter the Blue-seum , do look up and brush up on the blue flags of Somalia, Greece, Micronesia, Scotland and Honduras - FACT!)

Exhibit G: The Confuseum

Your eyes may hurt after exploring the VISUAL IMPACT all the optical illusions in here. 

Exhibit H: The All-About-Youseum

It's unique and amazing...and completely INTERACTIVE. Complete the exhibits by colouring with your two favourite colours and by drawing your best dream you've ever had while snoozing.

Now we've reached the end of our tour, I'll just conclude - if I may - by being just a little bit serious for a moment. 

Non-fiction texts need to inform yes, but they must entertain too. We want to be thrilled by what we read whether it is a novel or poetry or information. The latter category doesn't always present this quality, but in children's non-fiction it is an absolute must. Children are amazed by facts that blow their minds and true stories that inspire; they're less interested in tidy, organised lists of dates and suchlike. 

Nick Sharratt's Super Silly Museums does a majorly impressive thing by introducing the youngest children to some of the key aspects and qualities of the best kind of children's non-fiction (note all the CAPITALS in each exhibit above), but with a touch so light the whole book could be seen simply as a lot of laughs. It is very witty, of course, but there's also serious intent behind the exhibit choice in these museums and serious knowledge growing behind their walls. 

From experience, I know children will pore over every page, delighting in the busy-ness and bombastic colours. I am completely won over by this quirky and utterly child-centric approach to non-fiction though and would bet that more 'facts' are learned in its pages, by coming back time and time again for more and enjoying the experience so much, than in many a worthy non-fiction text of my own childhood. 

What a book for sharing! What a book for teaching! 

What a book...fullstop!

***

Nick Sharratt's Super Silly Museums is published on March 3rd 2022. I highly recommend you pick up a copy for any Primary School classroom. An absolute joy. 

Thank you very much to Scholastic Books for providing me with a review copy.