Received an advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I need to start off with saying this is a gorgeous book, which was reviewed by myself and my elementary school aged daughter. We both found it just absolutely gorgeous, with a mix of both elementary and advanced comments and facts. I think the geographic break up of the sections obsess book flow naturally as you move through it.. ( )

Museum Gift Shop Book

Natural Wonders of the World is a glorious book of giant photos collecting all the unique features of geology. It is divided into continents, with tiny inset maps showing where the features are. There’s a directory of all the major lakes, forests, glaciers, rivers – pretty much everything is inventoried worldwide. There is no author listed, but the acknowledgments list hundreds if not thousands of contributions from all over the world. It is an appreciation of our planet.

It’s a hybrid of coffee table book and textbook, meant for middle grades. The language is spare and encouraging, but with little depth. The layout is textbook, consistent, with lots of overlapping, sidebars and floating photos and diagrams, with callouts pointing to aspects of diagrams and images. Every area gets a token indigenous animal image to enhance it.

We have come a very long way geologically in recent years, and there are rational explanations for just about everything now. And when there isn’t one, they admit it (“We don’t really understand how…”). They are all collected here, with all the diverse processes, anomalies and phenomena laid out to overwhelm you.

It’s a remarkable planet. And we’re just getting to know it now.

David Wineberg ( )