Every minute in Australia $730 will be spent on bottled water, 9.5 avocados will be grown and 673 kilograms of cheese will be made. But that’s not all, because at the same time 749, 619 tonnes of iron ore will be mined, 41 boxes of Weetbix will be bought and 95 people will take off or land at Sydney airport.
These sometimes quite staggering figures (all that iron ore!) and loads more are revealed in this nonfiction offering. Every Minute in Australia is 170 pages of facts with a very Australian focus – with Vegemite, Cottees cordial, sport stars such as Cathy Freeman and landmarks such as Uluru all included.
The facts are divided into categories including food, animals, sport, technology and more. And whilst most pages include a statistic which converts items into times per minute, there is a lot more information and explanation. For example, the Vegemite page (page 8 ) tells us that 41 jars are brought per minute, which equates to 22 million jars per year, before going on to explain what Vegemite is, who invented it and more.
Not just random facts, the book takes the time to educate and inform on issues including water usage (and wastage), recylcing, illnesses such as cancer and more. There are also activites for young readers to have a go at in each section.
This is a fun nonfiction offering which will appeal to primary aged readers.
Every Minute in Australia, by Yvette Poshoglian
Scholastic, 2012
ISBN 9781742832128
This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.