Book review: “Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Dare to Look!”

c.2013, Ripley Publishing $28.95 / $32.95 Canada 256 pages

You’ve always loved dogs.

You love playing with them, throwing sticks for them to retrieve, wrestling with them on the floor. You love their soft fur and their goofy grins and there’s nothing better than snuggling with a dog on a cold night.

Yep, it’s great that you love dogs because you’ll need two of them if you want a good challenge: a double-dog dare is practically required when you read “Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Dare to Look!”

It takes a very daring kid to look at a book with eerie, scary things in it, but that’s what you’ll find inside here. Learn how Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre created a skull out of a pile of old books. Find out about the Swiss actor who becomes an evil clown, or read the mystery of the corpse bride and decide if she was human once or not.

Bravery is absolutely necessary for even looking through this book because you’ll see pictures of a Shark Whisperer, a jellyfish lake, and an alligator who goes fishing with nothing but his teeth. And then – if you’re really brave, you can make plans to visit the Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada and see real piranhas and a giant octopus.

Would you put yourself in danger to get to school? If you lived in the Xinjiang Uygur region of China , you would: kids there have to walk a narrow path on the sheer side of the mountain to get to class.

Would you have the guts to try extreme skiing, crack climbing, or camel-jumping? There are people who do – and more – but don’t try that at home.

In this book, you’ll learn about a man with two mouths, a pig with two faces, people with unusual tattoos, and others who’ve swallowed more than just food. You’ll learn about the assassination of a president and snakes on motorcycles, read back-from-the-dead stories, and visit a museum for real dummies.

And yes, you’ll even read about dogs: bike chain dogs, a dog with his nose missing, surfing dogs, dogs that get married, and one that got into a stick-y situation.

You’ll read about it… if you dare…

What kid doesn’t like knowing about weird, eerie oddities? Even the most reluctant reader does, which is why “Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Dare to Look!” is the perfect book to have in your house.

Yes, it’s true that the Ripley’s folks do these big, gorgeous books every year, and they’re always filled with fun-to-know facts, full-color pictures, jaw-dropping feats, and squirmy things. But this latest entry in the series is a little different: with this book in-hand, kids can download an interactive app to enhance their reading. They’ll get footage, more info, backstories, and more. Who wouldn’t like that?

Meant for 9-to-15-year-olds, I don’t see any reason why older kids and adults wouldn’t like looking through this book, too – so go ahead, be pro-active, and grab it. “Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Dare to Look!” is a book your kids will be doggin’ you to find anyhow.