Biggest Island? Smallest Continent? - Back a million years ago when I was in grade school, we were taught that Australia was the largest island nation, and not a continent.

There are over 120 different languages in the Solomons. The language most commonly spoken is Melanesian pidgin. Though English is the official language, only 1 to 2 percent of the population actually speaks it. The Solomons consists of 992 islands, only 347 of which are populated.

Official, but Rarely Used - The Solomon Islands chain in the western Pacific is the home of more than six hundred thousand people.

Recent research and DNA analysis may have located some of George's cousins, and, if true, those relatives have pulled the species back from extinction. One of those, the Giant Pinta tortoise was thought to be extinct, with the 2012 passing of Lonesome George, the last of his kind. Well known for the diversity of it's plants and animals, the Galapagos are home to some species that are not found anywhere else.

Lonesome in the Pacific - The Galapagos Islands archipelago is located in the eastern Pacific, part of the nation of Ecuador.Here then, are Ten Fun Facts About Islands: Wherever they occur, on oceans, lakes and rivers all over the world, islands have a special meaning as a land apart - an escape from our dreary continental lives. Yet, as Harvey' book reminds us, islands occur all over the world, from the balmy shores of Fuji or Tahiti to the wintry shores of Canada or Norway. Say the word 'island', and many people instantly conjure up images of tropical paradise, perhaps on a Polynesian isle. Regardless of their length of stay, the lure of island life helped motivate both groups of people. James Strang, Harvey's 'King of Confidence' led a band of Mormons to settle on Beaver Island, but he and the whole colony were gone within a decade.

The Polynesian people settled and have occupied the islands of the central Pacific Ocean for over a thousand years, and understanding how they did it is part of what motivates Thompson's book. This week I reviewed Sea People, Christina Thompson's fantastic book on the history of the 'puzzle of Polynesia', and Miles Harvey's The King of Confidence, a microshistory of the 19th century self-proclaimed 'King James', who reigned on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.

Each week I set out to research and document ten 'fun facts' on a topic loosely based on the two books I've reviewed that week.

Sea people by christina thompson