Want to know when and where the world’s worst earthquake happened? How about what happens to giant squid when they swim too close to sperm whales? Or learn about monkeys hot-tubbing it in natural Japanese hot springs? All this and more is explained in “Extreme Earth: Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” written by Clint Twist, Lisa Regan, and Camilla de la Bedoyere. This particular addition to the Ripley’s series is a “Twists” book, which means that kids reading it will have to twist it left, right, and up-side-down in order to read some of the fascinating facts, lending to the interactive properties of the book. The pages cover a multitude of topics ranging from mountain climbing, volcanic eruptions, ocean life, and man-made islands. There are helpful functions like “Big Word Alert” signs that point out large words used frequently on that page and their definition and “Fascinating Fact!” stickers that direct eyes to areas on the page that feature particularly strange and outrageous facts (i.e. the wandering spider is responsible for more human deaths than any other spider!). The photo collage format of the pages show exact descriptions of the facts and in some cases, give readers an idea about actual size (see giant beetle). Facts are also organized by colorful headers and captions littered with squiggling arrows that point out the corresponding photos. Recommended for grades 4-6. ( )