handbooks, vade-mecums, etc

Provides five thousand facts about everything from water parks and hair to manners and fossils.

Text and illustrations describe the universe, discussing the senses, planets, human evolution and more.

Guide for history buffs, science students, lovers of popular culture, and natural-born detectives. With background on the origins of more than 300 modern phenomena, objects, sayings, stories, and superstitions that most people take for granted. Complete with humorous illustrations and easy-to-navigate chapters, the eye-opening explanations and amazing anecdotes reveal the truth behind the birth and brilliance of the brown paper bag; the 4,000-year history of toothpaste and its torrid past; and the reasons for the staying power of popular puzzles from Rubik?s Cube to sudoku. Find out why we have nature to thank for velcro, valium, and the Guggenheim; why we get the blues and not the reds; and why Heinz has the Romans to thank for its saucy success. Describes the origin of more than 400 garments, machines, foods, sports, places, phenomena, and other everyday things that most people take for granted. Arranged alphabetically.

A collection of entries taken from the "Britannica Concise Encyclopedia" that addresses a wide range of topics; including art, culture, pastimes, history, religion, philosophy and ideas, science, technology, and more.

A collection of entertainments geared toward boys, containing accounts of famous battles, William Shakespeare quotations, games, and instructions for activities such as building a go-cart, cutting flint heads, making an electromagnet, and folding the "greatest paper airplane in the world.".