Stuff Kids Should Know: The Mind-Blowing Histories of (Almost) Everything

by Chuck Bryant, Josh Clark

Contents of this book are cooler than they appear.

From the masterminds responsible for the beloved, award-winning podcast, Stuff You Should Know, comes a gut-busting and brain-bursting nonfiction book for young readers.

You know the deal. There's Language Arts, Math, Science and History. You have the color-coded folders and notebooks; you know the material. The classic subjects. But why isn't there a Stuff That Knocks Your Socks Off class, or Random Facts To Rock Your World?

Well, luckily, with Stuff Kids Should Know, an incomplete compendium of only the most interesting topics, you will find fascinating stories and facts that will melt your mind! From demolition derbies to Mr. Potato Head to the history of facial hair, this book is full of funny, surprising information that sparks curiosity and reveals the magic of knowledge.

For Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, the founders of the massively popular podcast Stuff You Should Know, the everyday world can be extraordinary when you dig a little deeper into the “whys” and the “hows”. With plenty of clever insights, silly illustrations, and an array of topics, this book digs deeper into stuff we all wish we knew more about. After all, who thought a rock would be a good idea for a pet? Well, let’s find out…

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle Grade, Audiobook, Childrens

201 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Rachael Fryman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my absolute favorite type of nonfiction!! Short essays on the (often strange) histories of a variety of objects/people/places/phenomena. I can't wait to get this on the shelves for my students!
It also reminded me that I need to catch up on this podcast, and now go checkout the adult version of this title!

A few things you will learn in this book that you never knew you wanted to know!
1. There is one particular car that is typical banned from demolition derbys
2. There is a special museum in the UK that is not open to the public
3. The original version of Mr. Potato Head
4. What's most likely stalking the people in and around the Pine Barrens
5. What actually causes aging and if it can be reversed

[Andrea Frazee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written with just the style of humor my 10yo loves! He was engaged in this series of essays reflecting on random topics like the history of Mr. Potato Head, child prodigies, the Scotland Yard museum, demolition derbies, and other weird and random topics. The authors, two podcasters of a the Stuff You Should Know podcast (targeted at adults), seemed at times to maybe forget their audience for this is kids -- using references that the average kid probably doesn't know (e.g. references to the movie Inception); other brief comments just felt like they were targeted to adults and not kids?

Overall, this was enjoyable but a bit uneven in its appropriateness to its targeted audience as well as just uneven in the quality / engagingness of its chapters.

3.5 stars.

Thanks to Libro.fm for the complimentary copy of this book.

[Katie Proctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun! I listened to the audio with my kids, and they really enjoyed it.

[Trinia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick listen, fun and interesting facts even for adults

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh and Chuck…Chuck and Josh…what a delightful pair. This book of short, fascinating dives has me queuing up SYSK episodes in Spotify.

[Guylou (Two Dogs and a Book) · Rating 3 out of 5]

STUFF KIDS SHOULD KNOW by Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark, the guys behind the acclaimed podcast "Stuff You Should Know," presents an fun and eclectic compendium for young readers. The book introduces stories and facts that tickle curiosity, covering topics from demolition derbies to Mr. Potato Head and even the history of facial hair. The authors' knack for delving into the extraordinary within the everyday world is apparent, but the book's organization feels lacking, rendering it a collection of fascinating but somewhat disconnected tidbits. While the transition from podcast to book doesn't fully translate, the book offers amusing insights and illustrations that parents could use to share intriguing trivia with their kids. Overall, this book presents an array of interesting information.

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[Ag · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. Book. Is. Life.
I wish I had this book and then 6202922 books exactly like this one when I was growing up.
All my life I have been a hoarder of random info. And once I find some random fact I didn’t know before, I always want to know a tad bit more about it, and then a tad tad tad bit even more so. And this book does just that. It feeds you random facts and then goes a bit deeper. And then a little bit deeper, and then spins off a little bit to go even deeper. And then, if that was not enough, there are footnotes. And then references at the end of the book too. Nice. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. And those seemingly absolutely random topics, random choice of subjects – even more perfect.
This is absolutely exciting. This book is absolute knowledge hoarders’ shortcut to paradise. I will be stalking my tween with this book now. I want her to soak up the random fun facts about this and that, and get hooked on learning more about anything, about everything there is. This book is just so, so awesome, and the randomness of the subjects makes it even more awesome. Did I say it was awesome? Yeah, it was awesome.
The person who wrote this book should be writing all sorts of books for school. With this approach, any school subject would become breathtakingly exciting.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on their podcast, the authors have chosen fourteen random topics to explore for kids. Contents: Mr. Potato Head ; How to get lost ; Demolition derbies ; Facial hair ; Backmasking ; Aging ; The pet rock ; Do(ough)nuts ; The Jersey Devil ; Trillionaires ; The Scotland Yard Crime Museum ; Well-witching ; Dog smells ; Child prodigies.

This was a lot of fun to listen to, though with it being an audiobook, I think I missed some illustrations, and the pacing was sometimes a little odd because they had to work in the footnotes and sidebars into a linear read-aloud. They go into a good amount of depth and add a lot of humor, and I think kids will find it interesting, and it would be a good book to listen to on a family car trip because there's plenty to interest adults as well. Thanks to Libro.FM for a free educator copy of the audiobook.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant have an award winning podcast called Stuff You Should Know. Because of its popularity, they decided to write a book. For my money, they should just stick with the podcast...

They take ordinary topics like how did we ever get pet rocks, and seriously, how did someone make over a million dollars selling them? Or how did demolition derbies get started and what is the best car to drive in them?

While these sound like they should be really interesting to read about, the authors get completely bogged down in the details - and then they go even deeper into the rabbit holes that those lead to with tons of footnotes about the sidetracks.

Maybe it's more interesting when you can hear their banter on air but the printed word version was dry and tedious.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

I am definitely out of the loop on podcasts; this is supposedly a really popular, long running podcast, and I've never heard of it. I love the idea of random information, and love finding out random facts about just about anything, but this book seemed to be all over the place. There weren't that many topics covered, and they were oddly diverse. Mr. Potato Head and the Pet Rock, okay. Adding water dowsing and then the Jersey Devil? A little odd.

My students tend to like their information tidbits curated a bit more (Stinky Sanitation Inventions, Top Ten Food Innovations), but this would be good for the middle grade fact monster in your life.

[IrenesBookReviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe this book as a book of random half interesting notes about random half interesting items. The authors of the book do have a pod cast that is fun but translating that to a book just didn't pan out. I liked the variety of items written but it just felt like there was no order to them. Do I think a kid would read this? Not really. I do think that parents could read it and share the fun tidbits with the kids though. Not a bad book just not "mind-blowing."

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, for the temporary digital ARC that I read and gave my honest opinion of.

[AlohaKarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cool book. It’s interesting, entertaining, clever, funny, and actually makes reading the footnotes worthwhile. I laughed so hard at some of the footnotes, I thought what a shame it is so many footnotes are not this engaging! My favorite footnote was the one where they said that they wanted to remove a pump at the publisher wouldn’t let them.

You’ll have to read the book to find it. Lol.

I could totally see recommending this to my students, it’s just interesting enough that you really can’t put it down!

My thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the advanced readers copy of this book. Please note my review is independent and my opinions are my own.

[Dan Allbery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Potato Head origins. The difference between doughnuts and donuts. What it takes to become a trillionaire. All of these and more random information are found in Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark's book.

This title had been sitting on a shelf in my classroom library all year—no takers. And as I am forever trying to convince my students to read more nonfiction—they are fiction addicts—I thought I should "walk the walk" and read more myself. The chapters were short, well-researched, and fun. I do not know when I would need to know half of this information, but I have found myself saying to friends, "Did you know..." Recommended for GR 5-7.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've listened to the podcast and I actually read the adult version of Stuff You Should Know and this is...pretty repetitious. I'm not certain that the topics they picked are ones that kids are really dying to know about and are instead just topics from the first book that they thought were 'kid friendly.' It's an easy read, I think the kids will like the format, but I don't know that it's a great one.

[Janel G. B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

We listened to on audiobook. This book does not feel as if it is written for the audience of children. Referencing rumors of "Paul is dead"? What kid knows that reference? It was also devoid of humor and lightness. My daughter and I listen to many science and fact based podcasts and we just felt like this audiobook was very lacking.

[Bibliohiker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I thought this was an interesting book on various facts and inventions. It ran the gamut from water dowsing history to the Jersey Devil. If you like learning the history behinds things, this would be a good place to start.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love weird and random facts and connections.
I liked this way more than my kids, so it's probably better for upper elementary+ kids.

Thanks to MacMillian and Libro.fm for the advanced listener copy for educators.

[Joan Matla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a mom to three teens-Not sure how interested kids would be in these topics. Honestly I got a little bored through several topics, the delivery is very dry. A lot of nods to Gen X culture. I was pretty disappointed in the dis to Christianity- not cool in a book aimed at kids.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok this book was so much fun! I learned so many things I had no clue about before and I could see so much potential for this being a fun read aloud/learning experience at school or at home! I really hope they wrote more on more topics!!!

[Alex Richey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The facts were great. The humor was dated enough that even I, a millennial, did not get several jokes and pop culture references that were made. Great for a full family car trip for the length, and enough to keep everyone engaged, though.

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Pamela Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating details, written in a fun style, that will delight upper elementary and middle school students.

[Ray Andrus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to audiobook in car. Would have been great we’re it not for the insult to Christianity and Christians.

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting nonfiction book for tweens and teens. I liked the audio and feel like kids will too.

[Frieda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Corrin V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book with lots of interesting facts. Suitable for grades 4 up.

[Beth]

This book had a few really interesting things like child prodigies and potato heads. But others I didn’t care about. I do like these types of books where you learn history of weird things.

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of trivia targeted to kids. My favorite chapters were the ones on Mr. Potato Head and demolition derbies.

[Haley Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did this one off and on in the car (podcast style!) and really enjoyed it. My 8.5 year old got most of it.