Comments on: How & Why Wonder Books were… wonderful!

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:08:36 +0000

@Stephen Cairns: Since the books are long out of print, it’s a mater of scouring the planet’s second-hand bookshops. The biggest of them all, Amazon, has quite a few listed.

By: Stephen Cairns

Stephen Cairns — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:05:24 +0000

As a child I lived in Australia in the 1960’s and I remember saving up my pocket money to by my How and Why Wonder Books. It was great to view the covers on the internet today as they brought back such great memories. The ones that stick in my mind are Planets and Interplanetary travel; Robots and electric brains; the human body; dinosaurs; electricity; famous scientists.
Does anyone know how to go about obtaining old copies?

By: Alastair

Alastair — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:21:22 +0000

That is brilliant. I had totally forgotten about the Robots and Electronic Brains one, but I’m pretty sure I had it. All I can remember about it is wondering how that four-legged robot on the left of the cover could even walk, what with having no knees and all.

(”My robot has no knees!” “How does it walk?” “Badly!”)

And I never realised they made so many of the H&WWBs! Or that one of them was about the old testament!

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:11:10 +0000

@Megan: I vaguely remember the school project packs, but they were frowned upon where I went.

The How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs was actually the very first in the US series — and one that I owned with pride.

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:23:34 +0000

Oh yes — I loved those books. I fondly remember the dinosaur one in particular.

I later progressed to Time Life Nature library where I learnt everything I know about things like operative conditioning, red shift and African animals.

Do you remember those school project packs with the poster and pictures you could cut out and put in your project book? I think even remembering project books dates me. Now it’s all PowerPoint and Flash presentations.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 13:04:58 +0000

@Nick Hodge: I am, of course, completely NOT surprised that you know these books. The one on Stars told me how the Sun was going to eventually expand and fry the Earth -- gave me nightmares for months. But then the first time I watched Doctor Who there were Daleks and I had to hide behind the couch.

By: Nick Hodge

Nick Hodge — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:57:29 +0000

Hmmm, memories here too.

I think I had some handed down to me; either that, or they were in the school library (the place I hid from the reality of an Australian country upbringing) in the late 1970s.

If I recall, the “rockets and missiles” had a picture of Werner von Braun, the hero of NASA and V2 rockets.