EARTHLY TREASURES

From the same team behind such novelty classics as The Amazing Pop-Up Grammar Book (1996) comes this exploration of rocks and minerals. From a brief introduction that sketchily covers the usual rock-and-mineral territory (types of minerals, fossil formation, erosion), the text takes readers into largely unexplored spaces—mining (old-style and new), processing and uses of minerals over time—before concluding with an eye-popping array of gems. Some spreads are too busy for useful communication of information, but where the book works, it works well: Tiny flaps that fill one page lift to reveal which minerals are used to make such varied objects as stainless cutlery, porcelain toilets and arsenic (“extremely poisonous”). More a delight for busy-fingered browsers than anything else, this’ll keep that certain kind of child quiet for a long time. (Informational pop-up. 5-12)