Book Review: 365 Amazing True Things to Read in Bed

February 6, 2026 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

If you have a kiddo who is in the fun facts phase, 365 Amazing True Things to Read in Bed by Edward Brooke-Hitching and illustrated by Oksana Drachkovska would be a fun addition to your collection.

The book is aimed at readers around 7-9 years old (second to fourth grade) and includes a collection of fast facts about all sorts of things. Each “thing” is one to three sentences long or so, and they cover all sorts of topics, including space, history, the human body, animals and more.

Readers will learn about planets where it rains diamonds and that at least part of space probably tastes like raspberries. They’ll meet what was thought to be the world’s oldest cat, the emperor who banned pants, and the bird that eats insects off giraffes and sleeps in their armpits.

There are facts about apples being used in courtship, the island where the last woolly mammoths lived, a beauty pageant for camels and both the biggest and smallest frogs, to name a few entries.

Several facts are included on each page of the book, and all are illustrated in some way. Often there are several related facts about the same thing, such as an almost full page of panda facts, or a full page on ocean life. Other times the facts aren’t as clearly related but they’re still fun.

While the title suggests reading these facts before bed, they’d also be fun to share in the classroom. You could read one or a page full every day before lunch or at some other transition time. You can talk about which country has the most islands (Sweden), the oldest known human fossil (its name is Roger, for the person who discovered it) and how African wild dogs vote (with their sneezes!).

This book is a lot of fun for ids who can’t get enough cool facts, and adults will learn some things, too.

About the book: 96 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by words & pictures. Suggested retail price $22.99.

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Learn about Your Local Birds

Fall is a great time to learn about and observe the birds in your area, but you can do this any time of year. Whether you’re watching from a backyard or a playground, you’re sure to find a few birds and can learn about the birds that are native to your region in any case.

If you do see birds at home or where your classroom is, the Merlin app is a great one (if your school allows phones). If you don’t already know it, it listens to the sounds around you and can identify birds based on their calls. Very cool and a reason for kids to be quiet while you’re observing nature. Having an old fashioned paper guidebook to the birds where you live is also a great idea because kids can use it to look up birds and it’s just fun to have in the science center.

The specific birds involved in your learning will vary depending on where you live, but here are some bird activities you can do with your kids at home or in the classroom.

Natural Beach Living set up a simple bird nature study center that includes bird books and feathers in front of a big window. There are also some printables you’ll find links to in this post including three part cards and bird observation charts for birds local to them and a bird unit study with lots of great printables (this is a paid resource).

Adventure in a Box has a printable birds of the world bingo game, which might inspire you to learn more about some of the 48 different birds included, from emu to snowy owl, grackle to Atlantic puffin.

If you’re American you’ll enjoy these state bird coloring pages from Flanders Family Home Life. If I can count, only 48 states are listed (which I wouldn’t have noticed except Arkansas isn’t there; it’s one of many whose state bird is the mockingbird). Print out all of them or just your home state, or give each child a bird to research and color to do a presentation in the classroom.

And you can learn more about the different types of bird nests and see if you can observe any of them on a nature walk with this guide to bird nests from Fun Mom Printables on Etsy. It includes information about eight types of nests with drawings and three part cards.

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