While reading Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by by Susan Aldridge, Elizabeth King Humphrey, and Julie Whitake, it quickly became very apparent that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did. Even with all the trivia floating around in my brain, this book contains more useful facts in a quick, all in one place, easy to access manner that I might be able to give up Google for a while. (Maybe not, I love searching on Google!)
Know It All is a perfect introduction to a wide array of subjects for students, parents, teachers, and anyone else seeking a better understanding of nearly a hundred diverse topics from science to history, art, and religion.
Each chapter focuses on 10 to 15 entries and ends with a brief quiz so you can test your knowledge to see how much stuck with you after reading. Chapter 10 provides the final exam as a test over all the material from the entire book. Though I don't take many tests any more, I see this as a great supplement for home schooled kids to provide yet another level of feedback on reading and retention.
The nine chapters focus on the following broad topics:
- "Understanding the Universe"
- "The Story of the Earth"
- "The Story of Life"
- "Exploring the World"
- "Invention and Discovery"
- "Conflicts of the Modern Age"
- "The Structure of Society"
- "Religion and Thought"
- "Artistic Endeavors"
Even if you skip the tests throughout the book, each chapter gives a great overview of each subject. Interested in just a particular topic? Search the detailed four page index at the end of the book.
Is this book a complete reference on everything it covers? Not even close - but that's not the goal. The book serves as a starting point or introduction to the topics covered. From there you can branch out at your local library, bookstore, or on the Internet to dig deeper.
A few of the surprising facts I learned from the book included:
- The bumblebee bat is the world's smallest animal and it lives in Thailand along the River Kwai. An endangered species, the bat is around 1.2 inches long and weighs only about 0.07 ounces!
- Ball bearings were invented by Philip Vaughan in 1794.
- The longest serving capital city in the world is Paris, which has held that distinction since King Clovis selected it as his administrative capital in 486! How's that for staying power?
Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge is a great book to have in the house for parents of elementary, middle school, or even high school students to serve as a great starting point for reports and research. But more than that, it's a great way to learn or relearn some of those facts that may have escaped some of us since we were last in school ourselves!
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