Planet kids

Lonely Planet Kids’ latest offerings are perfect for satiating that inherent curiosity in children — and making adults wish that they’d been around when we were kids, writes Intan Maizura Ahmad Kamal

“AUNTY, are you done with the book yet?” wails my niece, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly as she waits for me to pass her the beautiful hardcover book in my hand. It’s the Lonely Planet Kids Dinosaur Atlas.

“I loveeee dinosaurs!” I squeal in reply, completely ignoring her plaintive wail. As words like Theropods, Sauropods and Ornithischians begin to consume my attention, I barely notice my niece’s resigned departure as she flounces off into the horizon — ok, kitchen — defeated.

Gingerly, I peel open a flap on a page: “...before the dinosaurs.. there were.” Turn to another page and my eyes rest on a dramatic “scene” of “the changing Earth”. Hungrily, I open more pages, devouring all the fascinating dino trivia, images of lifesize fossils and fold-out maps. It’s certainly a brilliant concept; one that invites fun interaction between reader and book.

Lonely Planet (LP) is the largest travel guide book publisher in the world. And I for one cannot get enough of their beautiful hardcover travel tomes with their breathtaking photography. The comprehensive pocket-sized guidebooks meanwhile, are heaven-sent, especially on one’s travels.

Recently, I’ve also become a huge fan of their children’s range of books under the Lonely Planet Kids (LP Kids) collection, a child-centric imprint first introduced in 2011 whose aim is to kick-start the love of travelling in the young while opening their eyes — and mind — to the amazing world around them.

The combination of astonishing facts, quirky humour and eye-catching imagery is a great recipe for igniting that inherent sense of curiosity that all children possess, in turn inspiring them to discover more about the planet we call home. Every LP book draws on the publisher’s huge team of global experts to help share their unceasing fascination with what makes the world such a diverse and magnificent place.

This year has seen LP Kids highest volume of releases — more than 20 titles have hit the shelves, including that awesome Dinosaur Atlas book, which the LP Kids team produced with the help of American paleontologist Dr David Button from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Other great titles to look out for? Check these out!