This was so pretty to look at. Full of wonder, physical copy is a must to enjoy those intricate numerators of nature.

Special thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for this review copy.

Received an advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I need to start off with saying this is a gorgeous book, which was reviewed by myself and my elementary school aged daughter. We both found it just absolutely gorgeous, with a mix of both elementary and advanced comments and facts. I think the geographic break up of the sections obsess book flow naturally as you move through it..

All the DK books are amazing, and this one is even more stunning than most! The photography is amazing, and the amount of information on each page is outstanding! I learned things that are new to me, so I know that students will definitely learn a lot and enjoy this book!

Natural Wonders of the World is a visually stunning book; that alone makes this a worthwhile purchase. When you add the fascinating scientific facts that accompany the excellent photographs, facts which are presented in an easy to understand fashion, you have a book that is guaranteed to please!

This is not a book that is meant to be read cover to cover, but rather one to pick up time and again to peruse, admire and satisfy your curiosity about the many natural wonders of our Earth.

This would make a wonderful addition to any library!

Many thanks to NetGalley and DK Publishing for allowing me to review such an amazing book! The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

This book, is another great reference book by the publisher, Dorings Kingsley.
The book is full of stunning photography, great page layout and it is easy to digest the information provided.

The natural wonders of our beautiful earth are categorized by each continent. The book does not just decscribes the places or the natural wonder features but also describes how they came to be.
It is a great science book for young and old. You can get your children of the internet and have them use this book for some old fashion research for their school assignments or projects as this book contains a wealth of information.
This book also makes a great coffee table book, that will be read and not just be part of a decor. I highly recommend this book!

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A lot of great pictures with interesting details about them. Enjoyable book to look through, and lots of great ideas of places to see in the world. I viewed this on my tablet though, and at times the images were not super crisp, and the print was a little small.I am guessing these issues would not be important in print format, but for digital it was noticeable. Would still highly recommend though and would be a nice addition to your travel library.

A great book for the coffee table or for a curious child to explore at their own pace. If you are looking for an overview of all kinds of fascinating natural wonders, well, this is your book. The layout of the pages tends to be two photos of two natural wonders and a couple paragraphs about each. There are also some 2 page spreads of some of these as they are just too pretty to stay on one page.

Excellent for anyone who loves beautiful images of the natural world with more information than a photography book. Highly recommend for parents of curious children. Just set this down in the middle of your living room and then prepare yourself for the questions.

DK Publishing and Smithsonian team up to deliver another gorgeous coffee table book of photography and accompanying text devoted to the incredible diversity and beauty of planet Earth. The photography is nothing short of stunning and the text is interesting and in-depth. Most of the accompanying information is presented as sidebars with the photos inset into the sidebars.

The book is divided into thematic geographical sections: Introduction, North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Antarctica, the Oceans, and Extreme Weather. This is a substantial glossy book, 440 pages in hardbound format.

The pictures are breathtaking. DK has never failed in my experience to present gorgeous and timely books. This one is precisely that, a worthy addition to that legacy.

Five stars, a really beautiful book.

DK has always done top-notch work for young readers. We have an entire shelf of DK books for children that our son has “outgrown “but that we could not bear to part with because the information is still so valuable, so well presented, and because we know his own kids will get as much out of them as he did. Their Natural Wonders of the World is yet another excellent entry in their library, though in size, illustrations, and completeness it takes things up a notch or two.

I’m going to skip over the informative part of the book and begin with what really is the stand out element — one stunning photograph after another. And I say that despite viewing what is clearly a low-resolution electronic version; I’m slavering over the prospect of the real thing in another few weeks. If anyone doubted the awesome (in the true use of the word, not its more debased common usage we get nowadays) majesty and terrifying spectacles of our planet, this book will quickly change their minds. Were there no text at all, this book would be worth its money (now if it only came with a magic ticket so one could see some of these places in person . . . )

But of course, there is text, a lot of it, and it’s just what one expects from DK: clear, efficient, concise, informative, bolstered by diagrams, cutaways, charts, graphs, and the like. Each landmark gets a half-page or page, with enough information to give one a solid sense of the place. The book is an overview, so it isn’t meant to go in depth (though it does have a cumulative effect with regard to landscape “types”, such as glaciers, mountains, etc.), but I never felt shortchanged, and I’m sure that many people will find their curiosity whetted enough to seek out more about various spots, especially those less familiar ones.

Structurally, the book is organized by the seven continents (with Central America combined with South America and New Zealand attached to Australia) with each continental section sub-divided into the following smaller segments:
• Mountains, lakes, and prairies
• Mountains and volcanoes
• Glaciers and ice sheets
• Rivers and lakes
• Coasts, islands, and reefs
• Forests
• Grasslands and tundra
• Deserts


After the continents is a section on the oceans and another on extreme weather. Finally there is a directory, a glossary of terms, and an index.

As a coffee-table book or as a resource for your child or for your students in your classroom/library, DK has produced a great text with absolutely stunning photos that makes this an easy recommendation.

Look and Learn

This is an interesting and surprisingly substantive coffee table book tour of the natural world. DK Publishing and Smithsonian have teamed up recently to produce a number of rewarding books on science and nature topics, and this is a fine, if slightly different, offering.

Most of the DK books have a theme and a clear structure. We start with single cells and end up in the brain. Or we open in Sumer and end up at today. Or, we start out on a sandy beach and end up in the deepest parts of the oceans. This book, though, is more of an unapologetic survey of every neat natural wonder you could thing of. The scale is big - Grand Canyon big, and you'll get a view of pretty much every landform imaginable. (Mainly - glaciers, volcanoes, rivers, mountains, deserts, forests, and coastal features.) Rather than by topic or natural process or alphabetically, these wonders are organized by continent. We start in North America and once we've nailed that we move on to the next continent. That's actually an insightful way to go, because as we skip around North America we get an exceptional sense of the continent as a whole - landforms, water features, climate, forests and wildlife, and so on. Turns out there is a theme of sorts after all.

This is also much more than an "Art Photography" volume. Sure, there are hundreds of quality photos, but this isn't really a pretty picture book, (or just only a pretty picture book). DK has mastered the art of factoids, side bars, informative captions, detailed cross-sections and blown up cut-outs and the like. The information content can be dense, and what counts as "interesting" is wide ranging and just a bit idiosyncratic. (For example, for the Sonoran Desert we get a description of the desert, comparisons of different desert plant root system strategies, a graphic distinguishing plateaus, buttes, mesas, and monuments, a visit from a resident rattlesnake, a touch of history, and two scenic photos and a desert-in-bloom photo. That's on one and a half pages.)

So, this is wonderful in a lot of different senses, and a work of interest and substance. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I grew up reading DK books about various topics. and I'm glad to see that they're still as good as I remember. Eye catching and informative. And now I'm old enough to be able to try to plan trips to the amazing places highlighted by the book.

The book makes geological processes easy to understand, with diagrams and images that aid with the descriptions. Stunning images that will guarantee that a child will definitely peruse the entire book.

It's a gorgeous book that I can't wait to buy for my younger relatives.

DK Publishers never fails to disappoint - their reference books are chock full of information beautifully laid out with gorgeous photos and simple explanations (all of which I need). Broken down by continents, oceans, and extreme weather, this is a great reference book for students of all ages and/or anyone interested in the natural world.

I can't really afford to travel - if I save up I can every now and again, but I know I'll probably never be one of those people who will be fortunate enough to see the whole world. Which is why I love, love, love photography books that focus on the world's natural beauty. Hey, if you aren't going to see it in person, why not enjoy the photos? DK is one of my favorite publishers of photography and reference books - their books are always extremely detailed, gorgeous, and loaded with tons upon tons of useful information. "Natural Wonders of the World" is no exception. The adobe digital editions file provided by Netgalley is obviously a very low-low-res version of the final book - now I'm desperate for the final version because it's going to be amazing.

This book is also a great reminder as to why we should protect our planet. Our planet is beautiful. Maybe we should do something about climate change before the beauty in the world dries up or floods?

Natural Wonders of the World is a glorious book of giant photos collecting all the unique features of geology. It is divided into continents, with tiny inset maps showing where the features are. There’s a directory of all the major lakes, forests, glaciers, rivers – pretty much everything is inventoried worldwide. There is no author listed, but the acknowledgments list hundreds if not thousands of contributions from all over the world. It is an appreciation of our planet.

It’s a hybrid of coffee table book and textbook, meant for middle grades. The language is spare and encouraging, but with little depth. The layout is textbook, consistent, with lots of overlapping, sidebars and floating photos and diagrams, with callouts pointing to aspects of diagrams and images. Every area gets a token indigenous animal image to enhance it.

We have come a very long way geologically in recent years, and there are rational explanations for just about everything now. And when there isn’t one, they admit it (“We don’t really understand how…”). They are all collected here, with all the diverse processes, anomalies and phenomena laid out to overwhelm you.

It’s a remarkable planet. And we’re just getting to know it now.

David Wineberg