The Big Book of Useless Knowledge: 250 of the Coolest, Weirdest, and Most Unbelievable Facts You Won't Be Taught in School

by Neon Squid

Overview

An encyclopedia of mind-bogglingly random facts that will lodge in your brain and refuse to leave.

Heard about the lizard that shoots blood from its eyes? Or the ancient Romans who used pee as mouthwash? Did you know that going on a roller coaster can cure kidney stones?

In this compendium of obscure facts readers will be treated to baffling knowledge they would never learn at school. Broken into chapters including geography, space, and history, a team of experts has scoured the world to find the silliest and most pointless facts that it has to offer.

Accompanied by hilarious illustrations, kids will meet the prehistoric camel with no humps, the tortoises that went to the Moon (and came back again), and dancing cave people. They will learn crucial life skills like how to walk on custard and how to unboil an egg by spinning it 5,000 times a minute. And they will read the heartwarming story of a court jester called Roland the Farter – can you guess what his special skill was?

(SPOILER: the information in this book isn’t really useless. It will inspire, shock, and amuse the reader – and maybe spark an interest that will last a lifetime. It just won’t help you with any exams!)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684493883
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/14/2024
Series:	Useless Knowledge
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1050L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Neon Squid creates beautiful nonfiction books for inquisitive kids (and kids at heart). We believe the most amazing stories are real ones, so our books are for children who want to decipher ancient scrolls, orbit distant stars, and dive into the deepest oceans. Our books are a labor of love—written by experts, illustrated by the best artists around, and produced using the finest materials, including sustainably sourced paper. We hope that by reading them kids are encouraged to further explore the world around them.

Editorial Reviews

A 2025 Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Title

"A hefty helping of need-to-know information, from gross nature facts to how tardigrades, tortoises, and toilets function in space. The barrage of artfully selected, must-share revelations that follow will keep even casual browsers riveted." —Kirkus

"There are plenty of brilliant, encyclopaedic, fact books on the market. The Big Book of Useless Knowledge is a great addition, expanding upon each fact, explaining it further in an accessible and entertaining style." —Armadillo Magazine

From the Publisher

2024-02-17
A hefty helping of need-to-know information, from gross nature facts to how tardigrades, tortoises, and toilets function in space.

A stable of science writers and illustrators set the tone by leading with pithy introductions to the blood-squirting horned lizard and the aptly named eastern skunk cabbage. The barrage of artfully selected, must-share revelations that follow will keep even casual browsers riveted. Though the book dishes up lots of customary morsels—yes, wombat poop is shaped like a cube, people are taller in the morning, and Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive—it has plenty of lesser-known tidbits to tuck away, from how to unboil an egg to observations that the Earth’s mantle is green, Martian sunsets are blue, and the mountains in China’s Zhangye Danxia Geopark have rainbow stripes. The authors offer some historical insights as well, informing readers that Abe Lincoln was a licensed bartender, that “Roland the Farter” was a minstrel in the court of England’s Henry II, and that a corps of warrior women guarded the ancient kings of Dahomey (modern-day Benin). The cartoon art, done by different hands but in a consistent style, includes a racially diverse cast in current or period dress.

Disarming title; crowd-pleasing content. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews