Children’s Illustrated EncyclopediaA READY-REFERENCE GUIDEBY NATALIE ROCHE

What is the “Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia” and DK Publishing? DK Publishing was founded in London in

1974 and specializes in nonfiction books for adults and children

They are best known for their award-winning Eyewitness Travel Guides

DK Publishing is also responsible for DK findout!, DK YouTube, English For Everyone, Rough Guides, Prima Games, and Idiot’s Guides

What information can be found in the “Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia”? Provides information for children between the

ages of 7-17 regarding who, what, where, when, why, and how (many)

This includes different countries, activities, animals, events, people, time periods, and more

Uses color illustrations and photographs with print facts of varying lengths, with references listed in alphabetical order

How accessible is the "Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia”? This book can be found in the children’s section of many

public libraries. For example, the copy I used was located in the youth section of the Winnetka Library under the call number J 031 CHI

The table of contents is listed at the front of the book, which lists each subject in alphabetical order and in order of appearance

The index is in the very back of the book, and it lists where each subject appears. For example, “bears” is listed under its own section, as well as the section for forest

Each term in the index shows what page number it appears in, and the page that has the most significant information is bolded

This book is easy to find and identify, and information is located easily as well, making the Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia very accessible for kids and adults

Example question: how much do crocodiles weigh? First, I flipped to the index and looked under

the letter “C”. I found that “crocodiles and alligators” appears on page 149, so then I went and flipped to that page

On this page, I found a small section discussing the average size of Nile crocodiles, which is 20 feet long, and over 1 ton

I looked in the index and saw that crocodiles were also discussed on page 436 on the reptile page, which mentioned that the saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile at 22ft long

Finding this information took no more than a few minutes!

Using DK findout! – the online children’s encyclopedia DK findout! can be accessed from any computer

connected the Internet – you would simply go to this address listed below and perform a search: https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/

I decided that I wanted to find more about crocodiles, so I searched the world “crocodile”

The first few options that came up for me were “crocodile parents”, “crocodiles and alligators”, “crocodile and alligator skulls”, and “reptiles”

I clicked on the link “crocodiles and alligators” and read the information listed and viewed images. I found that the information was consistent with what was listed in the physical book

At the end, the article also suggested other topics to look at on their website to find more information

Why use the “Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia”? Flipping through a book forces you to scan other information to

find what you need, and allows you to learn more along the way or even find new subjects you didn’t realize you were interested in

Even online, the DK findout! website lists possible subjects and example questions, which also allows the viewer to learn more than what they bargained for

Encyclopedias go beyond the google search – on the encyclopedia website, there are also quizzes for each search that allow the user to test themselves on their knowledge

The user can also choose to read just the fast facts or the full description in both the online resource and the book

The webpage also takes images from the books and allows you to zoom in on them, click on different parts and learn facts about those parts, making it an interactive learning experience

The language is kept easy to understand, straight-forward and kid-friendly

BibliographyThank you for reading! If you have any questions or need help finding any information, feel free to ask. DK Publishing. Children's Illustrated

Encyclopedia. 8th ed. New York: Penguin Random House, 2016. Print.

"Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and More!" DK Find Out! DK Publishing, 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.