THE BIG BOOK OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE

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.