Books come in all sizes and lengths! And the book for all the little wiggly nerds is here. I absolutely guarantee they will be totally enchanted, enthralled, amused and educated by Bill Bryson’s A REALLY SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING (Delacorte Press, 2009, $19.99). This oversized 169 paged volume immediately piques the interest of a young reader by opening, “This is a book about how IT happened– in particular, how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something.”
Bill starts the journey looking at the cosmos goes to the size of the earth, to our dangerous planet ending on the road to us. The trip is arranged and studded with fact after fact building to a picture of us today. Each chapter, and even each smaller piece, contains information the reader needs to develop a complete understanding of us and our world.
I opened the book probably halfway and almost two hours later found myself at its end. I was totally taken on a memorable educational journey. I am not usually a non-fiction devotee, but Mr Bryson has a gift for language any adult will enjoy. His A WALK IN THE WOODS, and the companion radio shows, about travel on the Appalachian Trail are treasured memories for this adult reader.
Copies of this book should be in every classroom library for students to simply pore over at their leisure. You might even consider chaining to the bookshelf to discourage it walking away. A definite MUST! This newly illustrated, abridged and adapted edition was originally published in Great Britain in 2003.