Usborne Books at Home has more than books😊. Hundreds of products are available, including cards, trivia games and even sewing and knitting kits. And, they have some wonderful jigsaw puzzles, each accompanied by a related book.
I’ve been a consultant with Usborne Books at Home, the Canadian branch of Usborne Books, for the better part of 15 years. I have always loved the multi-faceted approach that Usborne takes.
Their non- fiction books contained Internet Links before anyone had ever really heard of that before. This literally multiplies the investigating and research you can do and is great feature to add to your home library. For example, we found such neat links to an inside look at the International Space Station when we were looking at the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science that we just continued down a rabbit trail of videos and almost forgot we’d originally started with the book. You can see these in our Might Be Interested? links or you can click here.
Both fiction and non-fiction books often include maps.
Many stories have fun games, activities or recipes at the back.
Many books such as Classical Music Picture Book and Christmas Carols Sticker Book come with QR links to listen to related music.
Puzzle books such as the maze books often have a secondary theme: Around the World Mazes, Map Mazes, or Long Ago Mazes.
Games often have a few layers to them as well. Art Snap, Space Snap and Travel Snap also double as Memory/Concentration Games as L and I have discovered.
It is exciting to see the Usborne New Releases each month and I continue to find that Usborne consistently puts out some of the most engaging, innovative material available. In the last while, I’ve noticed a few people are particularly interested in the jigsaw puzzles and I get it because they are gorgeous! Each time I see the shiny, new Usborne items, I feel a slight pang because my kids are young adults and teenagers and my brain is still very interested in these products. However, they are usually quite up for testing new things out and the 300 piece puzzles have actually presented enough of a challenge that they’ve been fun.
They also each have that wonderful related book included …
While there are beautiful jigsaw puzzles with fewer pieces for younger children, based on fairytales and different habitats (you can check them out here), my eye has been caught by the following three jigsaw puzzles.
Periodic Table of Elements Jigsaw Puzzle and Book. The very fun thing about this puzzle and book is that the elements are personified according to their characteristics and/or common uses. So, in the 17 page booklet, “Lead” is shown as a character lifting weights because it is one of the heaviest metals. “Sulfur” is shown passing gas, lol, because sulfur compounds are so smelly. “Chlorine” is shown scubadiving within a splash of water. On the puzzle, “Helium” is floating away with a balloon. Many of the characters on the puzzle are doing funny things or have particular colours and expressions but it isn’t as obvious why, so there’s lots of room to investigate further.
Atlas of the World Jigsaw Puzzle and Atlas. This was the first of the 300 piece puzzles we got in and it’s a vibrant big picture of the world, complete with animals, geographical features, landmarks and drawn compass. The accompanying booklet is a 30 page “Atlas of the World Picture Book” full of descriptive illustrations and fun facts. The first page is a snapshot of the globe pointing out all seven continents, the Equator, North and South poles and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Following that are specific pages on Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Asia, Western Asia, North and Central America, South America, Australasia and Oceania, the Arctic and Antarctica, Flags of the World, World Quiz.
The cats are always passing by more than usual if there’s something on the floor 😉 – I finally decided to let this guy have his moment of publicity in the second photo.
Flags of the World Jigsaw Puzzle and Book. This puzzle took a very long time to do. Do you know how many flags have reds and greens and whites and blues? I had nothing to do with putting it together. The kids offered to try it out and none of us thought it would take that long in comparison to the other two, but I guess it makes sense when you consider all the stripes, colours and similar symbols. I would consider this to be the most challenging of the three.
The accompanying booklet is 47 pages and includes images to colour of some flags from each continent as well as interesting facts throughout. For example, did you know that Ethiopia was the first African country to choose red, green and yellow for their flag and so many African countries followed suit that those became know as the Pan-African colours? Or, that the star and crescent that we see on so many flags are Muslim symbols, while the crosses are Christian. Also, Switzerland is one of only two square shaped national flags (rather than rectangular – the other being the flag of Vatican City) and was the inspiration for the flag of the Red Cross. There are multiple tidbits throughout, highlighting symbols of industry, solidarity, climate, independence and more.
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