Travel the world from the comfort of your chair with this gloriously illustrated book from Marc Martin.

An absolutely delightful guide to the world for young explorers. You'll be taken from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the frozen continent of Antarctica via Hong Kong and Ulaanbaatar.
The pages are full of fun and personality, with quirky facts and gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations which are sure to capture readers' attention. Did you know there's only one place to withdraw cash on the entire continent of Antarctica?
My son and I spent a long time poring over the pages deciding where we would like to visit and marvelling at some of the weird and wonderful spectacles on display.
A stunning book, the perfect introduction to the amazing world around us. -- Library Girl * Library Girl and Book Boy Blog * There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to his choice or arrangement of destinations: Ulaanbaatar with its ubiquity of yaks and Reykjavik, home to lots of Annas and Jons clearly interested him so there we are.
Amusing snippets of information are scattered over the large pages, some such as Lenin almost 'accidentally' being an honorary member of the Beatles are funny, or that New York is sometimes called 'The City that Never Sleeps' (probably on account of the coffee!) Martin suggests.
So, if you want to be an 'armchair traveller', this is for you; better still, get hold of the book, be inspired by one of the destinations herein and then pay it a visit, to learn more about its people, wildlife, buildings, food, transport and landmarks for real. * Red Reading Hub * This is a non fiction picture book of huge page size in which various cities or regions from around the world are each given a two page spread illustrated with dozens of painted images.
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What makes this book particularly special is that each of the images is associated with a recorded fact about an animal from the location or the city itself. For example when the reader turns to the spread on Iceland they will learn that Icelandic people drink more Cola than any other group of people in the world!
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Boys will be amused by an entry on the Parisian spread. In the section headed Cakes and Pastries (two things the French are well known for) we see a dog. The turd the dog has just extruded is marked 'Not a cake'.
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Whilst there are whimsical and silly aspects to this book it does perform a useful role and in the hands of geography teachers who find young pupils struggling with narrative text it could be of particular use. * Armadillo magazine * This is a book for flipping through as an artist. Marc Martin whizzes round the world in a random and eclectic fashion. His pages are crammed with tiny, busy images - and there are lots of them. Illustrating random interesting facts or characteristics associated with the chosen city (cats in Cairo, dust in Alice Springs). This is not the book to go to find something out; rather it is for the child browser, attracting attention through quirky images that need careful exploration - and hopefully inspiring further reading. -- FH * Book For Keeps * A few weeks ago we talked about this fantastic Book of the Week winner on our first ever Podcast. If you listened in, thank you SO much - and if you wanted to know more about the book here's our proper review!
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):We just couldn't get enough of those vending machines...!

...and of course who could possibly resist the cute Albatross couple on this spread!

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. * Read It Daddy * What an enticing way to explore the different landscapes our world offers, and how humans have left their footprint on it. From the wilds of Antartica to the deserts of Alice Springs and the bustling neighbourhoods of Cairo, this descriptive and evocative book brings the corners of the world to life. It is constructed like a scrapbook, with each spread focused on one city or region with highlights of images, facts and colours. The Cairo spread, for example, focuses on the bustling traffic, cats and doorkeepers - not just the pyramids (although they are present) and there are notes about favourite dishes, the market place and traffic - over 4.5m cars! The Amazon Rainforest spread focuses on the wildlife and the different kinds of trees - a wonderfully colourful spread that takes us from the electric eels in the rivers (shock their prey with 600 volts of electricity) to the monkeys in the treetops (16,000 different species of trees here). A book for dipping into, exploring, and coming back to - a treat for any library shelf. -- Alice Bold. * Reading Zone * In this illustrated celebration of the world, they'll travel far and wide - from
Hong Kong to the Amazon and Ulaanbaatar to Antarctica. Lots gives you a
guided tour around the globe, highlighting facts that make each country
unique. Ignite the travel bug in every curious little explorer with this one. * Smallish Magazine *