Big Questions from Little People...: And Simple Answers from Great Minds - Hardcover

Harris, Gemma Elwin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062223224 ISBN 13: 9780062223227

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2012

Synopsis

In the spirit of Schott's Miscellany, The Magic of Reality, and The Dangerous Book for Boys comes Can a Bee Sting a Bee?--a smart, illuminating, essential, and utterly delightful handbook for perplexed parents and their curious children. Author Gemma Elwin Harris has lovingly compiled weighty questions from precocious grade school children--queries that have long dumbfounded even intelligent adults--and she's gathered together a notable crew of scientists, specialists, philosophers, and writers to answer them.

Authors Mary Roach and Phillip Pullman, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, chef Gordon Ramsay, adventurist Bear Gryllis, and linguist Noam Chomsky are among the top experts responding to the Big Questions from Little People, ("Do animals have feelings?," "Why can't I tickle myself?," "Who is God?") with well-known comedians, columnists, and raconteurs offering hilarious alternative answers. Miles above your average general knowledge and trivia collections, this charming compendium is a book fans of the E.H. Gombrich classic, A Little History of the World, will adore.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Illuminating and essential, Big Questions from Little People is a timeless gift, a handbook for curious children and their perplexed parents.

Many of the questions children ask in the course of growing up can stump even the best educated adult: Why can't I tickle myself? Are we all related? Who named all the cities? Do aliens exist? What makes me me? Is it okay to eat a worm? Who invented chocolate? If the universe started from nothing, how did it become something? How do you fall in love? Who is God? How do chefs get ideas for recipes? Why are some people mean?

This charming and informative collection has been compiled from schoolchildren's actual questions, which are answered by the world's greatest experts, including Mary Roach, Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Bear Grylls, David Eagleman, Philippa Gregory, Noam Chomsky, and Mario Batali.

About the Author:

Gemma Elwin Harris is a freelance writer and editor who has contributed to Time Out, Glamour, and the Sunday Times. A graduate of Cambridge University, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her young son and two very curious nieces inspired this book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0062223224
• ISBN 13: 9780062223227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336