World Almanac for Kids 2009

Expanded features: ? Presidential election information made accessible to kids: How much does it cost to run for president? How do voting machines work? Who adds up all those votes? ? The Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing, China, including the records most likely to be broken and sidebars on the lesser-known and unusual sport from Olympics past and present. (Did you know that tug-of-war used to be an Olympic event?) ? Language: Say it in Chinese! Did You Know? that fourth graders in China are expected to know 2,000 of the over 40,000 written Chinese characters? By the time they leave college, they will know 4,000 or 5,000 characters -- each character learned by looking at it and memorizing it. As home to the world's largest population (1.3 billion), oldest continuous civilization (4,000 years old), and longest man-made structure (the Great Wall, at more than 1,500 miles), China is a fascinating read. ? Science for the incurably curious: From an introduction to the periodic table for 8 to 13-year-olds to the CERN Large Hadron Collider, the 17-mile underground ring that will replicate conditions of the universe at a few seconds old. When CERN goes live in 2008, what will the collaborators (over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries, universities, and laboratories) learn? ? Astronomy: black holes, extra-solar planets, How-It-Works diagrams, and a peek at how astronomers detect super-distant objects ? Technology: From a new ?On the Job? profile of a video game designer to the basics of web safety. Watch for secret codes in this chapter to unlock more EXCLUSIVE content at WorldAlmanacforKids.com. ? Nations: Past and present rulers of the world. Can you tell the difference between a king, a president, a prime minister and other heads of state? ? All the fun things that kids love to read about and do: food from around the world, travel, games, experiments, puzzles. Colorful customized maps, timelines, and charts.World Almanac for Kids Editors is the author of 'World Almanac for Kids 2009', published 2009 under ISBN 9781600571015 and ISBN 1600571018.