The New Book of Knowledge: 1

An illustrated encyclopedia with articles on history, literature, art and music, geography, mathematics, science, sports, and other topics. Some articles include activities, games, or experiments.

The New Book of Knowledge^B (NBK) provides balanced, appropriate, and engaging coverage of a wide range of topics for students in grades four through six. Many appealing features, illustrations, and maps complement encyclopedia entries. For the 2003 edition, 51 completely new articles were added to the print set, among them African Union; Chirac, Jacques; Grief; Giuliani, Rudolph; Mesopotamia; Snails and slugs ; and Zoology. Fifty-three articles were replaced, including China, Conservation, Contact lenses, Medicine, Narcotics, Shanghai, and Sudan . Another 38 articles, including Arabs, Food supply, Koran, Olympic Games , and Postal Service, received significant revisions. About 1,200 new images, photographs, and works of art were added, and now more than one-third of the space in NBK is devoted to illustrations. Approximately 1,500 bibliographies were added, bringing the total number of titles to nearly 8,000.

The replacement article on Afghanistan is current into June 2002 and Hamid Karzai's election as president of the Transitional Authority. Terrorism, war on is a new entry, and Bush, George W. and Terrorism were replaced. The Bush entry notes his address to the United Nations in September 2002, and the new entry on Tony Blair mentions the prime minister's support for Bush's plans to disarm Iraq. The postdeadline Columbia space shuttle disaster made it into the entries for Space exploration and travel and Space shuttles.

Each volume has its own index with blue pages, which makes it easy to locate, and there is a well-constructed comprehensive index volume for the set. Items such as pictures, maps, and diagrams are clearly identified in the index entries. Unfamiliar words are often defined briefly in the index, which is very helpful. All entries are signed, with a few words to identify the contributor; additionally, experts have reviewed some entries. Bibliographies appear in the "Home and School Reading and Study Guides," which accompanies the print set and is also available online.

Conclusion: NBK is well suited to its young audience, a group generally underserved by reference publishers. Its many appealing features encourage children to explore and to develop good research skills. RBB
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