DK Braille: It Can't Be True
Dorling Kindersley (DK) has come out with a series of children's books that feature braille as well as raised (embossed) and detailed images from front cover to back and throughout each page. What is most amazing about these books for blind and partially sighted children and their parents and caregivers, is that even a sighted reader will enjoy feeling the images and trying to match up what is felt with what is written (in both braille and regular print).
For instance, in DK Braille: It Can't Be True! the cover features a hailstone compared to a tennis ball as its embossed images, while the braille calls out the title, series name, subtitle, and the comparion wording between the two images. This is followed inside by a detailed table of contents with the "incredible" factoid questions called out in braille with accompanying page numbers, which can be found throughout the book in the top corners for easy navigation.
Some of the more amazing embossings include the spread titled: How heavy are your bones? On it six skeletons are embossed and we even get a strip of raised images of the inside of a bone. With eyes closed, a sighted reader can enjoy the clever raised images as much as the reader of braille. Another remarkable spread is the one: How big is Jupiter? in which we get to "see" and feel how many earths can fit inside the huge planet. In How much air does a person breathe? we feel dozens of hot-air balloons serving as the head of a person above the neck, shoulders, and torso with lungs to give an idea of the fact that "a lifetime's breathing uses as much air as it would take to fill 95–100 hot-air balloons." To give the reader a sense of the size of a hot-air-balloon, a tiny embossed adult is offered next to one—both of which can be felt.
With a spine width of nearly two inches, It Can't Be True! is aimed at readers ages 9–12 and packed with lots of fun factoids for hours of learning fun and education. What a great addition to the often groundbreaking titles offered by DK, including On the Move: Knowledge You Can Touch, Animals: Knowledge You Can Touch, as well as Counting and Shapes for the younger crowd.
Parents, teachers, and caregivers of a blind or partially sighted child should rejoice.