Time For Kids All Access: Your Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Coolest People, Places and Things!

By: Editors of the Time for Kids Magazine
Publisher: Time for Kids
Publication Date: September 2014
ISBN: 978-1618931054
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: September 11, 2014

Swat! Don’t like flies? Well, not too many people do, but there are lots of times we’d all like to be a fly on the wall. It would be kind of fun to take a look at all kinds of things, including people. Not that anyone wants to spy, but wouldn’t it be fun to check out the cast of the Hobbit? It would be kind of cool to know just what Bombur really looks like under all that reddish hair and mustache. Did you know that “it took about 8,800 pounds of silicone rubber to produce the facial prosthetics for the films?’’ Now you do and you’ll know what Nori, Fili, Dori, Bofu, Gloin, Dwain, Thorin, Balin, Oin, Bombur, Bifure, Ori, and Kili look like in real life when you flip that Lift-And-Look page. How cool can it get?

Take that fly mentality and head over to some real walls, walls in the White House. You can’t look at everything because that’s super-secret (and kind of nosy), but if you flip that Lift-And-Look page you can check out a cross-section of the White House! It’s actually a model of the house in Clermont, Florida, but it’s very realistic. John Zweifel “spent 50 years creating a miniature replica of the famous house.” It’s amazingly cool and so realistic you’ll think you’re looking at the real thing. You can see the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, the furniture, paintings, rugs, and even a miniature version of Bo. In case you didn’t know, Bo is Malia and Sasha Obama’s dog.

Every now and then you probably get some big bucks for your birthday. Maybe you’ve even gotten one of those new $100 bills if you’re lucky. They look a lot different than they used to, but how can you tell the difference? That bill doesn’t even look anywhere near like it did more than a hundred years ago and you can check out how it changed over the years. There are a lot of new features. For example, if you “hold the bill up to the light, you’ll find a smaller simplified portrait of Franklin staring right back at you.” There’s some really interesting security features on this bill and you can impress your classmates by your new-found knowledge. Do you know what “color-shifting ink” is? You’ll know once you read this book!

This is a fun, fascinating look at some really cool people, places, and things. Many of these interesting facts have those Lift-And-Look pages that make it infinitely more interesting to read and browse. I had a lot of fun flipping pages back and forth trying to discover things like the hidden creatures in an Amazon forest. A forest is a forest until I turned the page and began to check out numerous critters staring right back at me. The book is divided into sections: People, Places, and Things. The layout pops with action and full-size, full color photographs. Sidebars and photograph captions add a lot to the text (and the fun). Admittedly, those sections with the Lift-And-Look tabs were the most fun, but no doubt, this book is definitely kid-friendly and has that wow factor that will lure in even the most reluctant readers!

Quill says: This will be one book that will be mighty hard to put down once you start flipping those pages!