The book of what englishare

KINGFISHER LONDON & NEW YORK Copyright © kingfisher 2010 Published in the United States by Kingfisher, 1#5 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010 Kingfisher ig an imprint of Macmillan Childr

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in 2021 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/oookofwhat0000unse

KINGFISHER

NEW YORK

KINGFISHER

LONDON & NEW YORK

Copyright © kingfisher 2010

Published in the United States by Kingfisher,

1#5 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010

Kingfisher ig an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Books, London

All rights reserved

Iugtrated by Ray Bryant

Concept by Jo Connor

Distributed in the U.S by Macnillan, 17#5 Fifth Ave.,

New York, NY 10010

Distributed in Canada by H.B Fenn and Company Ltd.,

34 Nixon Road, Bolton, Ontario L#E 1W2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has

been applied for

rd ISBN: 97#86-0-7534-6417-5

Kingfisher books are available for special

@ promotions and premiums For details contact:

Special Markets Department, Macnillan,

1#5 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

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0 — www.kingfisherbooks.com

Printed in China

1098%#654321 TTR/O510/LFG/UNTD/140MA

MADE EARLY EXPLORERS STARSTRUCK?

WERE THE FIRST CARS LIKE?

IS IT LIKE ON THE MOON?

IS IT LIKE IN THE OCEAN?

IS EARTH MADE OF?

IS A COUNTRY?

IS THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT?

— =U lee eee EE

19 IS MY SKIN FoR? 42 IS ENERGY?

Z1 = IS AIR MADE OF? 44 ARE STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES?

ZZ IS THUNDER? 45 .: 15-A TROLL? /

Za IS {7 LIke AT THE POLES? 47 15 A BLACK HOLE? : Z5 WERE THE ICE AGES? 48 DID EGYPTIAN WRITING LOOK LIKE?

Z6 = WIND CAN SINK A SHIP? 49 IS PREHISTORY? '

ZF MAKES WAVES ROLL? 50 IS AN INSECT?

ZB IS A CORAL REEF? 51 IS A BUG?

Z9 = IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHARKS 52 IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FROGS /

31 = IS A DREAM? 54 DID PEOPLE USE BEFORE FRIDGES?

BZ DOES MY HEART DO? 55 ARE FOOD MILES?

33 IS BLOOD FoR? 56 QUICK-QUIZ QUESTIONS

OF iS A LEAP YEAR? at

FAREWELL

36 1S A BLOWHOLE?

39 IS A WATERSPOUT?

40 MAKES LAND SLIDE?

HAVE you

D EVER ASKE YOURSELF

We how invite you to come with

we have discovered,

Did you know - -

Waterspouts can suck

up animals and carry

them for miles Fish,

frogs, birds, jellyfish,

worms, and lizards have

all been known to fall

from the sky

h’+ :

a

fing th, sirgt to help : eS " |

WHAT ene que FIRST es, lo)

cARS

Some people get out of bed

ved walk around while they are

= till asleep THEY do not khow they

es doing it, and when they wake

up, they do not remember it, either!

area filled with planets,

stars, dust, gas, and galaxies

The universe is getting bigger

Galaxies (huge groups of stars)

dre speeding away from one

another—making the

universe even larger

Evolution ig what scientists

call The very slow process

when one type of living thing

| changes into another type The

first bacteria were tiny, made

up of only one cell, and took

more thdhn 2.5 billion years to evolve into larger creatures

aie,

: Your skin covers your

entire body and protects

SS

aise,

| everything ingide you It algo

dj helps keep your body at the right

temperature you gweat wheh you are too hot and you get goose bumps wheh you are too cold

SGNOT9

sav

20

Thunder ig a gound caused by lightning Sparks

of lightning are very hot As they

flash through the sky, they heat the air

—<—— go quickly that it expands very rapidly

The expansion of air ig what causes

22

north Pole (The Arctic) ahd

ae S outh Pole (Antarcticg ) are

*

x xhe very ends of Earth

3 are freezing cold places

a,

that dre covered in ice

hd show Only the toughest

| Ghimals live there

ey

huge areas of Earth They

began two nillion years ago, and there have been 117 ice ages in total People used

to live in caves and wear

animal fur to stay warn

Be yas you Know * "9

\ast ice

Z \\

Wa Ve W

S$

aq they re at ocean by the

hey poll zs aster and hi? ly move In valet

f orm huge walls °

Underneath your hair,

"Si, and hard skull bone 19

YOUP brain, This organ control? \

host everything you do Vt sb

¥OU to blink, remembers ginection®”

Ghd makes you think-

fi dream ig a story that your

brain makes up while you are asleep

It feels as if it is actually happening Dreams can involve many different emotions—

happiness, sadness, or fear Scary

dreams are called nightmares

ort is 4 muscle

he

ae apeers YOU" "00d ‘moving

xno 4 put your hand Oh

RP ect, close to youn

yo

Time it beats, it pumps blood

y can feel it beating Each

al

! ap ©Uhd your body

red 9

blood cells and

platelet S |

16

Germs are tiny living

Things that are too small

to gee There are billions of

them on and in you all the time

Most germs will not hurt you, but some

Cah make you gick When this happens,

your blood gets to work and kills them,

making you feel better again

b

5 called pole

n their armpl’>:

The Black Death was a terrible

sickness that we call a plague It

began in the 1330s and spread from

Asia to Europe, carried by rats The

rats had tiny fleas that passed on

The plague when they bit people In

only 13 years, the Black Death had killed up to 200 million people

UP

WATERFALLS?

pxiantic galmon spend mogt e

xhei? ite at seq, but they Ae

xo the river where they weng

a hen it iS time to breed (have

h

w

roth Old) GRE DIE Ti ee “Pring

ona can even leap up water riven

S

+ide,

Wh eh 3 eawater rigeg at high

oun AWveg

ae into caves and

OF the ee roofs The es

a lake or sea, it gucks >

up water and is called 4

waterspout When its winds die

down, it can drop its load

of water like a bomb

If a tornado forms over

A

ie

HAT GIVES

| Earth ig made up of hud? of f) cron”

These plates move Ven ex wo RY

place where they ™© yore? ere”

a fault When the F 6 Qt

together, shock wave? vy 6 os?

the ground, causing srem?

SS

Y S Energy from water,

The wind, or the

Sun ig called renewable

energy Unlike oil, gas,

or coal, it will never pun out It does not produce

any harmful gases, such

ag carbon dioxide, and

does not harm the planet

WHAT ARE

STALACTITES

In Viking and Scandinavian legends, trolls are big, strong,

and scary creatures that live

in caves They appear only

at night to hunt for their

favorite dinner—humans!

Stars are huge balls of gas that include gages that are algo in the dir dround you The two main gages

in stars are hydrogen and helium

They are called the stars’ fuel,

|

46 1 § ss a

picture represented

a gound, object,

action, idea,

feeling, or number

Prehistory is the time

before there were any

written records about

Things that happened

in the world We know

about prehistoric life

through fossils—the

remains of animals

and plants that died

millions of years ago

fin insect has three pairs of

legs (six legs altogether) and three

parts to its body The first part is the head, the second ig the thorax, and the third ig the abdomen

WHAT IS she DIFFERENCE

Water striders are tiny

insects that are go light that

they can walk on water But they wouldn’t get anywhere without a force called

surface tension This pulls at the surface of the

water, making a thin, stretchy “skin” on the Top 53

were invented

around 1920

Before then, people kept their food in a wooden

cupboard called

an icebox Huge blocks of ice

would keep the cupboard cool

” Spell the pie es SEA

How long does it take the

Noon to orbit Earth?

What ig the world’s smallest country?

we seen 1S the largest

9an of your bodye

8 What are the maih

_ #, ° Egyptian writing Spell the firgt

When did the

Black Death begin?

grown locally good

for the environment?

he huge pieces of

18 What are t th called?

$\at rock in far

9 Name an example of

renewable energy

Wie Your skin,

3 The Milky Way

AMPHIBIANS

Animals, such ag frogs, that can live both

on land and in water

ATMOSPHERE

The layer of gases surrounding a planet

Earth’s atmosphere holds in the heat

from the Sun but algo keeps out many

of its harmful rays

from #00 to 500 years ago

BACTERIA

Types of germs that can cause

SSSae_ illness (singular: bacterium)

fuels, such ag coal and oil

a

ENVIRONMENT The natural world—the sea, land, and all the living things—on the planet

EXPAND

To become larger

FINS

Winglike parts on a fish’s body Fing move

to push the fish through the water and keep it balanced

FLEA

A small, jumping insect that feeds on blood

GALAXY

A huge system of millions or billions of stars

The stars, along with gas and dust, are held together by the force of gravity

GAS Something that isn’t solid or liquid Oxygen is a gas

GOVERNMENT

The group of people who make decisions on how

da country i$ pun

GRAVITY

Ai force of attraction between objects Thig happens

in space—for example, when a moon ig held in opbit around a planet because the planet ig more magsive

LEGEND

LL fi story that hag been told to

"people for a long time and has become

part of history but that may not be true

LUNGS

Organs in the body that help creatures breathe

by supplying them with oxygen

The path of an object ag it travels around

a larger object Earth orbits the Sun

ORGAN

fi part of the body that has an important job to

do The skin ig an organ that protects the inside

of your body, and the heart ig an organ that

pumps blood around the body

OXYGEN

fA colorless, invisible gas in air that animals need

to breathe in order to live

PLANET

A large, bali-shaped object in space that opbits

a star Earth is a planet

PREDATOR

Ain animal that hunts and eats other animals

REEF

A long line of rock, sand, or coral that lies

just beneath the a

SILK

Fine threads that are made by insects and woven together to make a goft, smooth, and strong material SKELETON

The framework of bones in a body

SMALLPOX

fi serious disease that killed many people but that

hag been wiped out because of a successful vaccine TORNADO

A fast and dangerous whirling column of wind

shaped like a funnel

TREMOR

A small earthquake

TROPICAL Describes the very hot and damp area around the center

fi mass of tiny droplets

of water in the air that appears as mist or steam

VISIBLE Describes something

that can be seen

C

calendars 3%

carbon dioxide 18,

21, 43, 55 caves 25, 39, 44, 45, 54 cells 13, 33

China 6, 9 clouds 20, 22, 23 compasses 6 constellations 46 continental shelf 15 coral reefs 28 countries 17 Cyclops 45

D

dolphins 29 dreams 31

E

Earth 16, 18, 25, 41

earthquakes 15, 40, 41 Egyptians, ancient 48 electricity 23, 54

germs 33, 34

t

Pasteur, Louis 12 penguins 24 plagues 35 planets 10, 55 polar bears 24

QR

rdin 26, 40 rats 35 renewable energy 43 rivers 36, 53

S

scientists 12, 13, 42, 50 sharks 29

ships 26 silk 9 skin 19 sleeping 8, 31 smallpox 12

Show 24, 25, 40, 54 South Pole 24

gpace 10, 11, 47 stars 6, 10, 11, 46, 47

LA, | | hf Lal Ald

Sumerians 49 Sun 6, 11, 43

vaccines 12

WXYZ

water 20, 21, 26, 27, 28,

38, 43 waterspouts 38 waves 26, Z#, 39, 41, 43 winds 26, Z#, 38, 43 writing 48, 49

Wow! What an amazing

journey! We hope you had

as much fun as we did and learned

many new things Who knew there was go

much to discover about “what”! Speaking

of “who,” we can tell you that we’ll goon

be going on a few more exciting journeys:

The Book of Who?

The Book of Which?

The Book of Where?

Look out for these great books!

“Who” knows “what” we’ll discover

See you goon!

vue 86

: BOON” oF J

The world is full of questions Now,

at last, you can get the answers to

50 of the most mind-boggling of all!

Including What is it like on the Moon?

What is energy?

Pr What is a troll?

i ‘

$7.99 US a= ISBN 978-0-7534-6417-5 $8.99 CAN o=

9 *780753"464175

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