Bill Bryson's Fascinating Exploration of the History of the World: A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

Hugo Porter Aguilar: Great reading for some knowledge for a lot a topics, easy read

United States on May 04, 2023

EF: I am happy I got this for my 11 year old daughter. I am sure she will get a great value from it.

Canada on Jan 15, 2023

Sd1126: Got this as a Christmas present for my eight-year-old, and she loves it! Important concepts and events in history have been written in such an easy to understand way for kids. Highly recommended.

United States on Dec 28, 2022

Bonnie Fields: I took this book to my husband who had cancer in the hospital. He said he really liked the parts he got to read. Unfortunately, he passed away a few days later, but he really enjoyed it. He was a heavy read and had all kinds of books on different topics. Thank you

United States on Sep 11, 2022

Pranab: While it appears as a kid-friendly book, this is just an illustrated edition of Bill Bryson's bestseller.

The text has merely been cut-up into smaller chapters, and accompanied by illustrations, but the words and flow have not been re-written to be more suitable for a kids book.

It is expressly not suitable for young kids to self-read, as the text flows at a separate pace from the illustrations. Might be better with an adult reading it to them.

Quite a disappointment, because the original book is amazing and kids could benefit from a simplified and visually entertaining derivative work. But this is not the book I was looking for.

India on Apr 18, 2022

Pete: You're Better off with the original really I thought this was an update but it feels like a kids picture book version, really still great if your 9 to 10 years old though.

United Kingdom on Nov 05, 2021

D H Surrey: Although the book was purchase for my grand daughter it has been looked at by the entire family who all agree that is a fascinating read, personally I have previously read Mr. Bryson's books and enjoyed them as an adult, this one is just as good but for Kids.

United Kingdom on Aug 31, 2021

James A Mayer: I had enjoyed reading Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. I have 7 grandchildren and decided they might enjoy reading A Really Short History of Nearly Everything with colorful, fun illustrations. Even though my first grader grandson in particular had always had a fascination with science, I was surprised and proud of how he devoured the book, reading parts of it out loud to his parents. He was so taken with it that he finished reading it cover to cover in a few weeks often asking mom or dad what a new word meant. He learned about many exciting science areas of study but also vastly improved his reading skills in general. The other grandchildren were interested in the book but maybe not as much as Graham. However My sixth grade granddaughter also completed reading the book and even recommends it to her friends.

United States on Sep 27, 2020

Dr. Jochen Robert Moehr: We recently enjoyed the adult version of Bill Bryson`s book "A Short History of Nearly Everything" thoroughly (as every book by this author) and thought of giving it to young friends, 8 and 11 years old who's goal in life it to become paleontologists. With this as back ground we were delighted that there is a version of the book for a younger audience: "A Really Short History of Nearly Everything". This has meanwhile been received with great acclaim. The only thing that was a bit disappointing to us was the overwhelming prominence of cartoons instead of photographic documents. But maybe we are merely too old for cartoons.

Canada on Jan 02, 2017

Snoosh: I read (via audio CD) the adult version of this book and found it interesting. It covers the beginning of the universe and our place in it to how humans got to be as we are, and has some great insights (like in the beginning where they note that we are all collections of atoms that happened to get together to form us, and the same atoms used to be other things and will be other things again). It shows how "science" is as much an art and political and silly as it is "science", stripping away some of the awe without removing the wonder of the discoveries made before "modern technology" and our advantages today. All in all, great for some interesting knowledge and useful perspective.

This version is for younger readers. Our kids (10-15) weren't sure about it when they got it for Christmas, but they are picking at it and getting drawn in and I'm sure will read it cover to cover before long. Other toys are too distracting right now, but they do find it interesting and are reading it as kids do!

United States on Jan 01, 2010