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Review from: School Library Journal, December 2005
All grades: Joseph Nathan Kane's Famous First Facts has
been a fixture in reference collections everywhere for more than 50 years.
Everyone from historians and researchers to students and teachers have
relied on this quintessential resource to provide the most thorough,
authoritative, and accessible collection of facts anywhere.
The electronic version of this superb product provides
users with information from the acclaimed print volume Famous First Facts,
Fifth Edition, which was published in 1998. It contains entries on
thousands of inventions, discoveries, and first happenings in American
history and covers subjects ranging from geography to math. The famous
firsts span time from 10,000 B.C. (the estimated date of the earliest
human artifacts found in America) through 1997.
As users of the print volume will attest, some of the
facts are quite obscure and others simply offer quirky perspectives on
well-known events and individuals. For example, did you know that Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to become a godfather to a
member of the British royal family? (Prince George of Kent, son of the
Duke of Kent, who was born on July 4, 1942). The electronic edition covers
the same ground and arms users with such odd trivia as the earliest known
hotel for dogs or the first mother and son to enlist simultaneously in the
army. Other little-known facts include the earliest Chinese restaurant in
the United States and the first U.S. president whose mother lived at the
White House (Eliza Ballou Garfield, mother of James Garfield).
Students can plow the database for facts by filling in
subject categories, keywords, or personal names. They can also run queries
by searching the city, state, date, and year fields. A search for the word
"pizza" yielded three results: a pioneering robot that made pizza, the
first war that was predicted by pizza orders, and the earliest founded
pizzeria.
Surprisingly, a search using the term "underwear"
produced only a single result. Okay, if you must know, the first circus
tights are believed to have been introduced in 1828 by Nelson Hower, a
bareback circus rider, who was forced to perform in his underwear when his
costume failed to arrive on time.
The information within each entry includes article
heading, fact, source, publication year, subject(s), date of event, and
geographic place. Records can be viewed in brief of full format. Students
can click the hyperlinked subject(s) contained in the entries to find
other interesting facts on related topics. There are several ways to
customize the display. Search results can be modified from the default
settings by clicking on a button that appears at the bottom of each
screen. Users can select how many records they would like to view on a
page (10, 20, or 50) and can also choose their preferred sort order
(ascending versus descending). In addition, they can select fields to
appear in the records. These include heading, source, and year of event. A
menu on the left-hand side of the page allows students to easily track
their search history; perform new queries; and print, e-mail, or save
their selections.
Students love trivia and learning new things. So if your
young learners are intrigued by facts about states and capitals,
presidents, literature, science, the Civil War, and more, then sign up for
a free trial. You may be surprised as to how many students enjoy searching
this treasure trove of informative nuggets.
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