Super cute book for children. It is an informative book about the most important buildings in the world. It is full of fun facts and special stories of magnificent buildings, Amazing illustrations and beautiful pictures exactly what a child would love to see on a book.

This book features many famous buildings from all around the world.  Just a few of those included are the Parthenon, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, the Blue Mosque, the Palace of Versailles, the Empire State Building,  the Statue of Liberty and more. 


Children will learn a bit about the history of buildings beginning when ancient people first sought shelter on through modern buildings. They will then go on to get a short look at each of the featured structures.  Children can then research on their own if they would like to learn more.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: I'm not the target audience for this book. I'm not young enough to be the age this book is aimed towards, nor do I have any children.

That being said, my inner 8-year old would have enjoyed the shit out of this book! I was a precocious child who liked reading anything I could get my hands on. At that age, I was all about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. But there is such a thing as information overload when you read something so vast. This book would have been a lovely introduction/companion book for my younger self. It would set up as a perfect start and then lead you towards learning more by yourself. Drip knowledge, if you please, which is a truly efficient way to learn.

Which is the point. The book sets up and describes beautifully the wonderful buildings and structures in the world. The pictures are gorgeous and the language perfect for comprehension by a young child.

My only issue - which is pretty much a non-issue, if I'm honest - is that I could have used more information. Which is why this book works as the aforementioned introduction/companion book. Of course, that's something that 30-year old me thinks. For the book's target age, however, the length is perfect - the book just long enough to hold the interest of wandering minds, yet descriptive enough to educate.

Final verdict: 5 stars. Kudos!

***ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

World of Wonder. Great Buildings by Mack van Gageldonk is a fantastic guide that teaches kids about amazing structures all over the world. There are even ones included in the book that may be new to adult readers. I love how the book is laid out in a way that gives information about the building as well as facts about the geography and culture of where the building is located. There's also a great mix of modern and ancient buildings and fun illustrations mixed with great photography.
Many thanks to Clavis Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Did you know that Disney based their Sleeping Beauty castle off of a real life castle? How about why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans? These questions will be answered in this new title, along with many more! The "Mack" books for kiddos have always been ones pulled off the shelves in bookstores for my family. The color photography on every page is a main factor. This new one, about great buildings around the world, will be no different. Each double page spread introduces you to a famous building and also has a "challenge" for the younger readers to complete like which building is the white house and choosing between two illustrations. Travel families will enjoy showing places they might visit one day or before upcoming trips. The informational text is slightly longer than expected for the age of reader (5+), so this will be one to enjoy together and discuss. Details like the globe in the upper corner shouldn't be missed as it helps place the location of each building in a world context. But there are some odd graphics added like suns and moons that don't really play a part to the overall image they are overlaid. My review is based off seeing an online ARC from #NetGalley and #Clovis.

The pictures in 'World of Wonder. Great Buildings' are absolutely stunning, but the text misses the mark. The dates and facts about the buildings are very vague, like "a couple thousand years ago." The text is oversimplified to the extent that basic building information is missing. However, I do love the pictures and buildings/structures included. This book would be best for readers age 5-7.

Thank you NetGalley and Clavis Publishing for providing this ARC.

World of Wonder: Great Buildings has some nice photographs of famous (and some not so famous) buildings across the globe, and some informative text, but overall it felt oddly organized, sometimes confusing, and a bit wanting in terms of information.

It does cover a lot of ground, so if you’re looking for breadth, this might suit. But from the very start the organization seemed oddly designed. It starts off with “Thousands of years ago, houses were very simple.” But then two lines later it reads “A long, long time ago there were no buildings yet.” That threw me as an adult; I’m pretty sure it will throw the target group as well. Throughout the book it seemed that it would have read much more fluidly had much of the text been reversed in each discussion of a single building. It also has some oddly inserted and somewhat vague questions throughout, which only add to the sense of disjointedness. Somewhat similarly, moving from the Parthenon to the Pantheon may make some chronological sense, and for an adult audience it’s fine, but for a child, such similar names coming immediately one after the other is most likely going to cause some confusion. Beyond these odd organizational decisions, the text is adequate but not particularly stylish or lyrical or melodic. The information offered is also adequate, with some entries better than others, but I would have preferred more text even if it meant sacrificing some buildings just for more interesting information about the actual construction of the buildings or their usage over the years. As for the images, they vary greatly. Some are beautiful photos, many are solid, and some, like the text, display some odd choices.

I’d say there are probably better books for children interested in buildings/architecture, but if you want to offer a broad, global look this isn’t a bad choice, though I’d take it out of the library rather than purchase it. I'd rank it a 2.5

This was a great book. I liked the variety of buildings and the diversity of where the buildings were located. I also liked the interactive elements on nearly every page spread. It's a good book for younger children, though it may need to be read in chunks.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clovis Publishing for my gifted eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really interested in this for my son to learn more about architecture in a fun way. He’s not old enough to understand it now, but I thought it would be good for later on down the road. The information included is good and easy to understand for younger kids. Unfortunately this is very hard to read. The formatting is strange, there are some grammatical errors, and there are random numbers throughout the book that made it difficult to concentrate on the text. For the most part, the pictures are beautiful, but some of them are edited strangely leaving a large black background that looks odd. Overall, it does have some good information, but it’s just not for me.

Well this was a miss from me. It could have been a wonderful guide to the world and how we all build different fabulous buildings (or have done in the past when we could afford to, at least). Instead we do get a decent page for every entry, with a well-presented photo of each building (Sydney Opera House, the Capitol Building, a whopping mud mosque, et al) and a suitable paragraph about it. But then we get so much that is pointless, and manages to dumb down a book that was for the under-eights as it was. We get a second picture, and there will always be some dumb, childish cartoon image superimposed, and we'll get a 'bonus' section where you get to respond to a question the book asks you. "Which of these is the Taj Mahal – the white splodge, or the black splodge?" I ask you. I could have made it lose marks by it choosing atypical images of Angkor Wat (neither are of the main temple complex), and I certainly would have shot it down by calling the tower at the Houses of Parliament Big Ben, when that's not it's name, but it did all the negatory work for me. I liked its global approach, and the main images and descriptions are fine, but practically half this book is painfully poor, so I'd never countenance it in my school library (if I ever had one, that is).

This would be a great book for any child! I thought it was clear and the pictures were helpful. Cute way to get children interested in seeing the world at a young age :-)