Bulging Box of Books: 1 (Horrible Science)

My two boys absolutely love this set. My 6 year old has been a reluctant reader - but now he comes home from school, grabs a Horrible Science book and happily reads for an hour or two. My almost 8 year old also loves them. The only trouble is when they read out some facts from the book about how people tried to cure/avoid the black death for example. Now I have reached 40, these gruesome facts make me shudder, but I know for sure that I would have loved them when I was young. There is a slightly smaller box of Horrible Geography books which are also great - and I've just bought the Horrible History box of books. Great value, great content. The only minor gripe I might make is that the books are packed quite tight in the box (could have done with being 0.5cm wider) and you have to lift the books up to see what each one is which a shorter base and bigger lid would have solved.

These are definitely brilliant. First of all non fiction is a great way to get reluctant readers into books and the grosser it is the better for that. I have found that using these or excerpts from these is a good way to get some of the pupils at older ages groups but who are below average readers interested. They are not an easy read for younger and struggling children but interest is what we are after here. These are very like the horrible history series except without the option of watching the TV instead. Personally I bought a set for my son (6 years old) because of his ongoing fascination with science. Reading them is a little beyond him but only because the nature of the subject means the occasional convoluted latin or medical phrase has to get used so he was quite happy reading about different sorts of plants and animals but gets thrown by dropping in terms like "eukaryote". So it's probably aimed at the 8 year and upward age groups and now I use it by reading and editing on the fly and picking the right book to go with whatever we've been doing recently. So if he's shoved a splinter into his finger we'll have blood, bones and body bits, if we've been staring a bits of plant then tonight's bedtime reading is vicious veg. In short this wins on all fronts. You can tie them in with other activities, older or better readers can read them independently and reluctant readers can be interested.

A very good stand-alone purchase but complements the other 'Horrible' series of books very well (Horrible Histories, Horrible Geography, Murderous Maths, et al.). Plenty of carefully chosen stories and collection of facts all presented in the classic 'Horrible' genre. The books are obviously well written and have a positive impact on learning. For example, my 8 yo daughter was able to explain to me how an electric guitar works with respect to the amplification of electric signals generated by the disturbance of the magnetic fields around the pickups - this was in response to her pointing at the pickups and asking what they were, I simply said they were magnets, she then worked out for herself how the generation of sound could be achieved. I asked how she knew this and she said the principles were described in the 'Shocking Electricity' book.

There is a lot of educational content and fun facts in these books. The clever thing is the kids don't see things like 'why can't you burp in space' as educational, it's fun. Great illustrations along the way help too. Absolute bargain of a box set.

If your kids enjoy horrible stuff. This should meet their quota. Strong box with books packing away neatly.

I bought these books as i had a set as a kid, I have no clue what happened to them so I bought these ones, the only gripe I have is the box wasn’t yellow like my old set it was orange, but still an amazing set.

My grandson's favourite books.

Interesting reads for children aged 7-11. Good value.

My son loves every one of these books. The set has kept him busy for a long time, and he now wants even more because these are so good. They make "science" fun and interesting, so I am happy to have him spend time reading them.

My son loves it~

My 9 year old daughter loves them and she has learned more from them than what she has learned in school for the last 3 years.

These books are great read for my kids, they have lots of jokes and my daughters keep giggling while reading them.

My child like it, very intersting . we get 20 books. thanks.