NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS ALMANAC 2016 with editor interview and GIVEAWAY


ABOUT THE BOOK

This New York Times bestseller is packed with incredible photos, tons of fun facts, crafts, activities, and fascinating articles about animals, science, nature, technology, and more. New features include a special section on animal friends; an updated "Fun and Games" chapter filled with all-new games, jokes, and comics; a new "Dino Myths Busted" feature; all new weird-but-true facts, crafts, and activities; a new special "15 Facts" feature in every chapter; updated reference material, and much more! And, this is the only kids' almanac with mobile media features that allow kids to access National Geographic videos, photo galleries, and games.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With more than 600 titles—including the popular Weird But True franchise and the New York Times Best Selling National Geographic Kids Almanac—National Geographic Kids Books is the recognized leader in nonfiction for kids. Published in 28 languages, NGK Books reaches approximately 85 million kids every year.

Offering K-12 educators resources that align to and support the Common Core State Standards, National Geographic has a long history of providing high-quality informational texts suitable for primary, upper elementary, and middle school English language arts, social studies, and science classrooms.

REVIEW

National Geographic has long been known for the quality of their photography.  That fact becomes obvious when you pick up the National Geographic Kids Almanac 2016.  The photographs are stunning and tremendously appealing.  The topics covered in the almanac are also bound to pull readers in both young and old.  The facts about animals, adventuring, science, dinosaurs, and nations of the world are fascinating which makes the book one to pore over.  Many hours of not only entertainment but learning can easily be filled with this great new version of the New York Times Best Seller.  Highly recommended for readers, especially fact hounds who can't get enough. There is sure to be something for everyone.

INTERVIEW

*How do you decide what to include in the almanac?

Our first stop is to take a look at the most popular features of National Geographic Kids Magazine from the year. You may not know this, but we survey kids after EVERY issue! We ask what they liked most, what really resonated with them, what they were most excited about. Then, we try to fold some of those magazine departments into the Almanac. "Weird-but-True" facts are always a big hit, and so is everything and anything animals. We also try to take a look a what's new and exciting in the news, specifically in science. We're always looking to see what new animals have been discovered or what new inventions are being worked on. We also tap into our really amazing set of National Geographic Explorers --- these are people who are already at the forefront of their industries, so we like to take a look and see which of their projects our readers would be interested in. We also keep a running list throughout the year --- any time I see something cool in the news, it goes on the "possible story" list!

*How does the international edition differ from the U.S. version?

Believe it or not, we actually have four (yes, FOUR!) editions of the Almanac! There's the US edition, the International edition, the Canadian edition, and the UK edition, which is called the Infopedia. Now, not all editions are sold in the same places, of course, and they're really targeted to the market they're created for. For the US and the International editions, we make changes specifically in the Geography and History chapters. The US edition, for example, contains sections about our states. We have some great US maps and also facts about each state. The History chapter also includes information about our government (Constitution, branches of government, presidents, and more) and about our unique history and people (Civil Rights, women in US History, Native Americans), and some fun cultural things, like this year we have an excerpt from our book George Washington's Rules to Live By. The International edition has information about world leaders and international travel. 

*What's your favorite part of working on the National Geographic Kids Almanac?

Everything that goes in it! There are so many features and stories in the Almanac, about all kinds of different topics. So it's really fun to have one page all about awesome frogs, then another page all about history's mysteries, and then another page with a Funny Fill-In game! I also really like the process of updating the maps every year. Being National Geographic, we work really closely with our cartographic department to update all the maps and flags that appear each year. There are lots of little things that change here and there that most of us wouldn't even notice. So it's really fascinating to talk with our colleagues in the cartographic group about what updates they need to make. 

*How does the almanac change from year to year?

The challenge with an annual publication is the time it takes to make the updates! Factoring in the time it takes to print the books and ship them to booksellers, that doesn't leave us a ton of time. So, we update about 40 percent of the content each year. We start the process by looking at what features are due for an update -- has a certain story run for two or more years? Then it's probably time to replace it! And, of course, we always update the reference information --- all of the population numbers, language data, the holiday calendar, etc. In addition, the Your World chapter and the Fun and Games chapter are both completely updated each year. One of my favorite updates, though, is the list feature in each chapter. You'll notice in 2015, all of the lists had 15 things (did you see "15 Cool Things About Luck" in the 2015 Almanac?). In 2016, the lists are up to 16 items --- you can't beat the baby animals in the "16 Cutest Animals of 2016" list! I can't wait for 2017!

GIVEAWAY

1 print copy of National Geographic Kids Almanac 2016
US only

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