On one occasion my six year old interrupted to put forward his idea of moving continents ("like a jigsaw") a whole two pages before plate tectonics were described!

In the 20th century we entered a “century of science where many people wouldn’t understand anything and no one understand everything.

Bryson presents information in a way that is understandable, giving children a real opportunity to grasp some of the more difficult scientific concepts. Inside it explains prehistoric animals, measuring Earth, the Earth’s age, supernovae, many famous scientists. Furthermore, he discusses the possibility of the Earth being struck by a meteorite and reflects on human capabilities of spotting a meteor before it impacts the Earth, and the extensive damage that such an event would cause.

But some parts completely gripped their imagination - how often do you have conversations with your children about Newtons' Laws of Motion? It’s a slightly troubling fact that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you. Can't say as I blame him there; to wit, "reality TV" and the doltish emphasis in this society on how one looks or on how much money one makes rather than on what are we doing to our planet and what can I, as an individual, do about it! Bill Bryson’s own fascination with science began with a battered old school book he had when he was about ten or eleven years old. The illustrations and summary pages at the end of each section helped and the finally summing up; "we should be custodians not pillagers of our planet", had them suitably upset by the current rate of extinction and the risks of global warming.So when the YA version caught my eye, I jumped to the chance to learn stuff about nearly everything again. I find it difficult to stick with a book when every 2 pages it feels as if you're starting something new. It was difficult getting them to concentrate on ideas that were new, overwhelming and difficult to grasp at the end of a day. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology.