Beautiful Books

A certain discount retailer beginning with T has made its fortune by attending to style. Used to be, with functional goods, beauty or style cost extra. To cut the cost, function remained but beauty was the first thing to go. Not any more. Now T hires big name designers to integrate style into its functional products, and other discounters are following suit.

A similar split between functionality and beauty is all too common in children's non-fiction. If a book is to be functional - that is, informative - then beauty is the first thing to go. Thankfully, we have delicious counter-examples, like A Drop of Water by Walter Wick (Read a Review)(See Buying Information). This is a book of science explanations and demonstrations about water. Where others might have gone with simple, functional diagrams, Wick give us stunning photographs that qualify as art. They sure make the demonstrations seem inviting and make it a pleasure to handle the book. And at around $11.00, beauty and function are still affordable.