''Horrible Geography'' is a series of children's non-fiction books written by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips, and published in the UK by Scholastic. It is a spin-off from the ''
Horrible Histories
''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more.
In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpo ...
'' series, and is designed to get children interested in
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
.
Reception
The
Royal Meteorological Society
The Royal Meteorological Society is an organization that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Members can be lay enthusiasts. It publishes vari ...
's Metlink teaching resource reviewed ''Stormy Weather'', calling it "engaging, accurate and interesting", and praising its conversational style and illustrations. A review in the journal
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
praised the series (along with ''
Horrible Science
''Horrible Science'' is a similar series of books to ''Horrible Histories'', written by Nick Arnold (with the exception of ''Evolve or Die'', which is written by Phil Gates), illustrated by Tony de Saulles and published in the UK and India by ...
'') for its "sense of fun" alongside the educational content, but noted that the facts provided are occasionally misleading.
Books for Keeps
''Books for Keeps'' is a British online magazine covering children's books.
Awards and sales
As of August 2011, the series has sold almost 2 million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages.
''Horrible Geography: Odious Oceans, Violent Volcanoes and Stormy Weather'' won the
Geographical Association
The Geographical Association (GA) is an association in the United Kingdom. The organisation has a stated aim of improving geographical knowledge of the public through promoting geographical education.
Origins
The Geographical Association was fo ...
Silver Award in 1999. In 2008, the Geographical Association also gave ''Horrible Geography of the World'' a Highly Commended Award for its contribution to school geography. The ''Horrible Geography Handbook: Planet in Peril'' won the 2009 Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book with Facts.
In 2010, Anita Ganeri was presented with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society's
Joy Tivy
Joy Tivy FRSE FRSGS FIB (1924–1995) was a 20th century Irish physical geographer at the University of Glasgow. She specialised in biogeography and has been credited for having helped raise the profile of biogeography as a distinct sub-dis ...
Education Medal for "exemplary, outstanding and inspirational teaching, educational policy or work in formal and informal educational arenas".
Titles in the series
Main series and specials
* ''Odious
Oceans
The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and ...
'' (1999)
* ''
Stormy
Stormy may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Stormy'' (album), by Hank Williams, Jr.
* "Stormy" (song), a 1968 song by the Classics IV
* ''Stormy'' (1935 film), a drama starring Noah Beery Jr., also the title character played by Beery
* Stormy (2024 ...
Weather'' (1999)
* ''Violent
Volcanoes
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...
'' (1999)
* ''Desperate
Deserts
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the l ...
'' (2000)
* ''Earth-Shattering
Earthquakes
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...
'' (2000)
* ''Raging
Rivers
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
'' (2000)
* ''Bloomin'
Rainforests
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
'' (2001)
* ''Freaky
Peaks
PEAKS is a proteomics software program for tandem mass spectrometry designed for peptide sequencing, protein identification and quantification.
Description
PEAKS is commonly used for peptide identification (Protein ID) through de novo peptide ...
'' (2001)
* ''Perishing
Poles
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
'' (2002)
* ''Intrepid
Explorers
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some expectation of discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organisms capable of directed locomotion and the abilit ...
'' (2003)
* ''Wild
Islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below.
Lists of islands by count ...
'' (2004)
* ''Monster
Lakes
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...
'' (2005)
* ''Cracking
Coasts
A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...
'' (2006)
* ''Horrible Geography of the World'' (2007) - name changed in later editions to ''Wicked World Tour''
Handbooks
*''Wicked
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...
'' (2008)
*''Wild
Animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...
'' (2008)
*''Planet in
Peril
Imminent peril, or imminent danger, is an American legal concept that defines the term as "certain danger, immediate, and impending; menacingly close at hand, and threatening." In many states in the US, a mere necessity for quick action does not co ...
'' (2009)
*''Vile
Volcanoes
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...
'' (2010)
*''Perilous
Poles
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...