Book Review: Hidden Wonders

If you’re someone who enjoys discovering new places and learning about things that are “stranger than fiction,” you need to check out Nicole Maggi’s Hidden Wonders: A Guide to the Planet’s Wildest, Weirdest Places.

Published by Lonely Planet Kids (an imprint of Lonely Planet’s) in November 2019, this book is geared toward youngsters age 9-12.

‘WONDER’ EXAMPLES

Page after page after page of fascinating places fill this book … along with stunning photos of the places being described. Each page focuses on a different location. Because there are so many (the book contains 233 pages!), I’m only going to list some of them here:

Miniatur Wunderland — The largest model railway in the world is an accurate representation of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Begun in 2000, it’s still being built today.

Pig Beach — In an uninhabited part of Big Major Cay in the Bahamas, it’s possible to swim with pigs in the surf. No one is sure how the pigs got there, but even though they’re wild, they are friendly … and love to swim!

Jigokudani Monkey Park — Japanese snow monkeys enjoy soaking in hot springs in Joshinetsu Kogen National Park, Japan. The nice thing is, you can join them … since the baths are open to the public.

Cité Portugaise — Built in El Jadida, Morocco in the 1500s, this building was used as both a church and a cistern. This is a great place to visit if you enjoy light shows! For some reason, the water was never completely drained from the building, and whenever beams of light reflect on the water, the results are spectacular.

Assateague Island — This small island off the coast of Virginia (United States) is home to about 300 wild Chincoteague ponies. One legend says the ponies are descended from horses left on the island by pirates. Another legend says they came from horses left behind after Spaniards were shipwrecked on their way to Peru in the 16^th century. Either way, visitors can take riding lessons on trained ponies.

Easter Island — This is one of the more famous wonders mentioned in this book. Owned by the South American country of Chile and located about 2,200 miles west of that nation, this volcanic island’s most mysterious claim to fame is the presence of nearly 900 giant human statues that were carved from hardened volcanic ash. Located in Polynesia, the island’s native name is Rapa Nui.

UNIQUE FORMAT

In keeping with the unusual content in this book, the Table of Contents in the front of the book looks very different than what you typically see. Starting with a one-page introduction, the pages are laid out with labels that relate to longitude.

Chapters go from Chapter 1 (Longitude -180°/-120° Discover) to Chapter 6 (Longitude 120°/180° Witness). But don’t try to figure out which part of the world goes with each longitude, since the locations seem to be scattered randomly throughout the book.

I would say the most important thing to remember when flipping through the pages of this book is to HAVE FUN EXPLORING!