WORLD OF THE WEIRD

A first-rate browsing item, from the bicycle-riding frog on the front cover to the recipe for chocolate-covered crickets at the end. In entries designed for microscopic attention spans, Turner presents barrages of snippets on extreme sports (“chessboxing”), uncommon maladies (“exploding head syndrome”), oddball festivals, bizarre beliefs (“Eating stolen bacon is a cure for constipation.” Do tell!), strange creatures real or otherwise, supernatural phenomena and, as they say, much, much more. It’s not just straight reportage, either, as along with the chocolate snacks, the author tucks in directions for creating green ectoplasm, several magic tricks and other hands-on activities. Unusually for compendia of this ilk, she also includes a URL or other source on each single-topic spread. Illustrated with photos that are often startling but never gory or gross, this compact page-turner will light up the imaginations of motivated young readers and jaded nonreaders alike. (Nonfiction. 10-12)