Lots: Marc Martin

I bought this as part of a Christmas Present for my 7 year old Grandson who has just started Home Ed. His Mum is an artist and absolutely loves the style and format. I haven’t had the chance to look at it properly myself but am looking forward to reading/ looking at it with my Grandson. O looks alone, I would recommend it!

There is so much to find in this book, every time we read it I find something new. The illustrations are colourful and interesting. This book is suitable for many different ages, my 3 year old loves spotting things and my 5 year old is starting to read it.

I can’t stress enough just how wonderful this book is. Essentially it’s an illustrated geography book - but the illustrations and clever snippets of information are totally brilliant. I’ve learned loads! …and my kids just cannot get enough of it. We’ve had a copy for years and still regularly read it with my two kids (now aged 5 & 8). Highly, highly recommended!

This book is brilliant. It’s great for my cousin who loves to ask lots of questions. The illustrations are brilliant and very detailed with lots of little facts. I think this book is great for curious kids.

My kids and I love finding books about facts and this is packed full of many interesting weird and wonderful things. What makes it so special Is the Stunning illustrations are engaging and beautifully drawn. Sure to be a well loved favourite

A wonderfully illustrated book that my 7 year old daughter has been enchanted by. The size of the book is brilliant, larger enough for the drawings to be really seen. Hardback, so really durable. We loved looking through all the different countries and cities and learning about them together through pictures.

The children’s encyclopaedia is not the same genre as those used by adults. Whilst the older generation had to make do with giant tomes filled with information and perhaps, if you are lucky, a small black and white picture every now and again; the kids get full colour books with more images than facts. ‘‘Lots’’ by Marc Martin takes this even further by reducing the facts even further and bombarding your eyeballs with illustrations. Marc Martin is an illustrator and author who has a distinct style and runs with it. ‘‘Lots’’ is so called because each double spread of this hardback version of the book is packed with lots and lots of images about a given subject. Most of the pages feature a famous city, but there are also other pages that cover objects such as the ocean. To portray the information Martin has filled every inch of the page with his watercolour style illustrations. A given city may be New Delhi and rather than telling you all there is about this city, he portrays a vibrant slice by highlighting things such as rickshaws, weddings and bangles. Your reaction to ‘‘Lots’’ will depend highly on what you want and expect from a book that seeks to inform. There is no way that this book can be considered the be all and end all of information, even in the increasingly information lite books that are being made available for children. The style adopted by Martin means that the book almost drops out of the encyclopaedia genre and into that of the coffee table book. As something to behold, it looks great. Each page is jam packed with colour and attracts the eye. However, does it have more than a function as a piece of art? The fact that it does not provide a huge amount of useful information means that it is not actually that useful for a child to use. Try writing a short paragraph on a given city from this book, you would struggle. The entire nature of ‘‘Lots’’ is sporadic. It is lots of random things thrown onto a page. Random facts about random topics. If Martin had called the book ‘‘Lots: Major Cities’’ it would have made some sense, but by splicing the likes of Cape Town with The Amazon means that the book just feels like it has a scattergun approach. With the book being unable to inform perhaps it is best seen as one of those children’s books that appeal mostly to an adult. I imagine that a child attracted to pictures, rather than words, would appreciate this book, but they would still require another book to accompany it if they planned to actually learn anything. With a series of more topic based books Martin may have been able to impart enough information on a given subject, whilst style retaining his artistic prowess. As it is, this is a book that succeeds as art, but fails as education.

A nicely made book, thought provoking when read to my children! Though is just a collection of someone's thoughts when travelling, no actual comparison of "Lots!" How do we know its Lots, as it doesn't compare the amounts to other places/ things! Nice illustrations, though lacks substance in my opinion compared to other books available!

Highly useful teaching resource, particularly in the primary grades.

This book is absolutely beautiful!

Muy interesante

Arrivato puntuale e in ottime condizioni. L'albo illustrato è bellissimo, pieno di disegni e dettagli da osservare, che stimolano la curiosità del bambino. Ma fa sognare anche gli adulti e fa venire voglia di viaggiare.

Beautifully illustrated, lots of interesting information, cleverly communicated. Facts presented as art, making it fun to learn about other places, people and things. My artistic, imaginative daughter loved it as a Christmas gift to her growing family. :)