If the success of the Guinness World Records or Ripley’s Believe It or Not series is any indication, kids love oddities. Maple Tree Press brings such weirdness to the forefront with two new titles.

In the first, They Did What?!, Toronto author Jeff Szpirglas focuses on fashion fads, unusual inventions, April Fool’s jokes, extremely extreme sports, and other strange quirks of the human race. The author asserts that by looking at the wacky side of human behaviour, we can learn a great deal about the world around us. Szpirglas presents some intriguing information, particularly in the “Tall Tales” and “Believe it … or Not!” chapters, where he debunks an assortment of urban legends and sets the record straight on some tidbits of misinformation, such as the idea that bulls are infuriated by the colour red and that dropped food is safe to eat if picked up within five seconds.

Nature Shockers takes a tabloid newspaper approach to present little-known facts about the planet Earth and its varied life forms. The feature “Tales That Got Us” examines media hoaxes and misinformation that has been passed off as fact. Author Keltie Thomas (a former editor of Owl magazine) also includes a quiz in each chapter to test readers’ ability to spot false reports about nature. The majority of the information focuses on interesting, true-life oddities.

While the two books are similar in type of content, delivery, and conversational tone, Thomas’s book lacks the polished visual appeal of Szpirglas’s. The gaudiness of Nature Shockers’ lurid cover art may be due to its tabloid design, but it doesn’t create an attractive first impression. The wild mix of colours on the interior pages overloads the senses and makes it difficult, at times, to focus on what’s important in the layout. They Did What?!, on the other hand, utilizes white space more effectively on easily navigable pages that are enhanced by Dave Whamond’s exaggerated cartoons, which perfectly complement the silliness of Szpirglas’s text. Both titles include a helpful index and table of contents.

Based on text alone, both are good, kid-friendly choices for engrossing leisure reading material, but They Did What?! will likely make more trips to the library checkout counter because of its shelf appeal.