This is a great choice for kids of all ages and backgrounds. It is similar to many of the National Geographic books, with high interest content in bite size pieces. Grownups could use this one too, read it as a coffee table book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I purchased for my library.

Are you curious about what color the center of the Earth is? Hint: not red!

Or what is inside of Mt. Rushmore?

Or why is the blood of a crab one of the most expensive liquids in the world?

Or any of the other 250 cool, random facts from “The Big Book of Useless Knowledge?”


Yes? You’re my kind of person! 


I love a good random fact. I love them so much that I often snuck away at my best friend’s house to snag her dad’s “useless” information book to read while we would hang out. Imagine my excitement when I got the opportunity to review “The Big Book of Useless Knowledge.”

This book was so much fun! I listened to the audio version (which was fantastic), but the physical book is also so cool, and I loved the fact graphics. This would be an excellent pick for late elementary—middle-grade students, but reading a fact and learning alongside your younger children each day would also be a fantastic experience. Grab your copy today!

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge

Edited by Sam Priddy
Published by Neon Squid
May 14, 2024
Audiobook- 2 hours

“An encyclopedia of mind-bogglingly random facts that will lodge in your brain and refuse to leave.”

I requested this title from NetGalley because it sounded like something my kids would enjoy listening to in the car, and it did not disappoint. Both my 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter thought it was hilarious and have been repeating some of the facts they learned from this audiobook. They were particularly entertained by the section on nature and animals and have asked to relisten to it multiple times.

If you’re looking for an entertaining and educational book for the whole family to enjoy, check this one out.

Thank you, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio, for the ALC.

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge is a highly entertaining read and the audiobook would be perfect for a family road trip. Filled with random facts about a variety of subjects, the book is organized into sections featuring specific themes/topics. It's easy to stop and pick up the book again without feeling like you've missed something.

Listening to this book was such a treat. The narrator gave an engaging and upbeat performance that paired nicely with the context of the book.

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge is a fun read or listen for children and adults alike. The topics discussed provide opportunities for further discussion and deep dives, perhaps inspiring readers/listeners to learn more "useless knowledge" beyond the pages of the book.

Kind thanks to Macmillan Audio, Neon Squid, and NetGalley for an advanced listening copy of The Big Book of Useless Knowledge.

This audiobook is extremely entertaining. The only hiccup is the background music needs to be toned down. It was a tad distracting and times and difficult to focus on the "Useless Knowledge." My boys always enjoy audiobooks centered on them as the audience! So, keep them coming!

My 6 y.o. begged to listen to this book every time we were in the car. It truly is a book of useless facts that are silly, outlandish, and have you wondering how it can possibly be true. Wide variety of facts and the narrator was great. Plenty of poop, fart and butt facts which is always a crowd pleaser with boys. 😂

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC!

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge was a very quick and enjoyable listen. Some of the factoids I already knew, others were mildly interesting, and a few were quite surprising and fun. Also, Neon Squid is a terrific pen name for a children's non-fiction author. Worth the read!

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge was such a fun listen! My Children ages 4-9 enjoyed all the interesting facts. I liked that the book was broken down into sections, it kept the kids engaged. I even learned some fun facts! We also enjoyed the Narrator for this book, his tone was light and entertaining! Definitely worth a listen!

5 ⭐’s for content
4 ⭐’s rounded for audio version
Overall:
Rounded to 5 ⭐’s on GR
4.5 ⭐'s on StoryGraph

This audio book is so fun and full of useless facts, most of which were new to me! There were a few that my kids knew from watching Octonauts but there were many that blew their minds as well.

I have found myself listening to it on my own and then coming back and listening to it again with the kids. It's a great way to engage with the kids especially in car rides and keeps them off their devices. It's best listened to in small chunks and perfect for short trips.

I've been walking around telling everyone useless facts which turns out they're not useless, they're great conversation starters!

I would recommend this audiobook for adults and kids and I'll be looking for other audiobooks from NS as well.

I took off a star for the audiobook version because I didn't care for the background music. It means I can't change the narration speed without it sounding weird and some of the music was particularly sleep inducing for listening to facts while driving, which is when we do the bulk of our listening. The narrator was good overall but without much pause between facts coupled with the music it became monotonous at times.

We were lucky to receive this as an advanced audio copy from NetGalley and Neon Squid in exchange for an unbiased/fair review. Thank you!

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge: 250 of the Coolest, Weirdest, and Most Unbelievable Facts You Won’t Be Taught in School by Neon Squid, audiobook narrated by Tim Campbell, is currently scheduled for release on May 14 2024.

Heard about the lizard that shoots blood from its eyes? Or the ancient Romans who used pee as mouthwash? Did you know that going on a roller coaster can cure kidney stones? In this compendium of obscure facts, listeners will be treated to baffling knowledge they would never learn at school. Broken into chapters including geography, space, and history, a team of experts has scoured the world to find the silliest and most pointless facts that it has to offer.

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge offers readers, and listeners, facts that are organized in logical grouping to interest and entertain them. Weird and odd facts are my favorite kind, and I have been around a bit longer than the target audience, so I will admit hat I knew more than a few of these facts. However, I did still learn some things and was entertained. There is humor in describing some of the facts- making the read more engaging for readers of all ages. I think it will appeal to many readers, and maybe would be good for listening as a family on a car trip. The one thing that I did not like about the audiobook is something they have tagged as a selling point. There is background music and sound effects through out the entire book. I found them distracting, and since they seemed to only directly relate to the facts being discussed on occasion, I thought they were overdone. A few well thought out and placed sound effects would have served the audiobook better.

I absolutely enjoyed listening to the audiobook. I’m a huge fan of useless knowledge and fun facts about all sorts of things so this book was perfect for me.

Each chapter of this book is broken up into main topics like “Useless Knowledge about Places” or “useless Knowledge about People” s even if you didn’t want to read the whole book (I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to) you have the option to just skip to that specific topic. I really liked the narrator. I feel like because this book is marketed more for children or middle grade readers he was really upbeat and enthusiastic while reading the book. Which makes sense to me because learning new fun facts is exciting!

While this book is definitely more targeted toward a younger group of people, I think people of all ages would enjoy this book if you love general and useless knowledge. I can’t wait to share some of these facts with my friends qnd family!

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this wonderful audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

My 7 year old ate this book up. We listened to it on car trips. He laughed non stop. He asked so many clarifying questions. We all learned something, even my 6 year old who tried his very best to not enjoy himself.

The narrator was great; very similar to a narrator on an educational tv show geared towards kids. It felt familiar to him without any explanation.

Thank you NetGalley, Neon Squid, and Macmillian audio for this audiobook ARC. We really enjoyed it!

This was a fun book of facts! I liked the organization of the book which grouped facts on similar topics together.

As an adult, I would have loved a deeper dive into some of this knowledge, but I understand that the fast pace of this book will be more appealing to its target audience. I'm sure there are kids who will love this book!

My kids and I listened to this in the car and were so engaged with the content in the book. So many of the facts were interesting, gross, or funny. We found ourselves talking about the facts from the book at other times throughout the day.

The Big Book of Useless Knowledge was such a fun family book! My 5 year old and I listened to the audiobook, occasionally letting the other kids (and even Dad) join in on the listening. We learned a ton of things, and it’s been fun sharing these facts with others.

The audiobook was really well done. The narrator did a great job, and the sound effects that went along with the different chapters and sections were so neat.

I highly recommend this audiobook for a fun listen while in the car with the family. Or for stocking up on knowledge to gain fun knowledge to share at the dinner table. Break it up into chunks, and take your time. This really is a big book, so there’s hours of listening and plenty to enjoy.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook copy.

This audiobook was a big hit with my kids! We listened to it on a road trip, and they wanted to start it over once the audio finished. This book is full of fun facts that will keep your kids entertained and engaged.

A fun book of mostly useless knowledge. Quick read, good narration. The background music could be turned down just a pinch.

Physical copy recommended for bathroom readers, or someone trying to up their reads-per-month.

(I received this ALC via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.)

"The Big Book of Useless Knowledge" by Neon Squid is not a story. It is a list of 250 trivial bits of knowledge. In the audiobook narrated by Tim Campbell, there is background music, which is particularly annoying, especially if you change the speed of the playback. There is no transition or separation between the trivia within each category.

The knowledge categories or chapters are as follows: nature, human bodies, places, prehistoric, history, culture, science, earth, and space.

To give you an idea of what's in the book, here are my favorite bits of knowledge from each category of the book:

Nature knowledge
❤️ Wombats poop cubic shapes.

Human body
❤️ There is no such thing as double jointed, just stretchier ligaments.

Places
❤️ The Great Wall of China has sticky rice mixed in with the mortar in the wall's construction.

Prehistoric
❤️ Sharks have been around longer than trees.

History
❤️ Purple clothing was very popular in the Bronze age, 5000 yrs ago. The purple dye was made from smooshed up Sea Snail mucus.

Culture
❤️ 1/2 of the world's population speaks only 0.3 % of 7000+ known languages. The most commonly spoken languages are:
Mandarin
English
Spanish
Arabic
Hindi

Science
❤️ Roller coasters can cure (help break up) kidney stones. Research supports this.

Earth
❤️ Rainbows are perfect circles. We only see the part above the horizon unless we're in the air in a plane or in a high mountain.

Space
❤️ Mars has a red sky in the day and blue sky at sunset.
---

I was not able to binge listen to this. It was too much information at once. I did find a lot of things interesting, but it came at me too fast to retain much of it. I would prefer to read or hear more info about each one and have less overall bits.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me with this early release audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

While the children I listened to this with were not immediately engaged by the title and idea of this book, they enjoyed listening to the audiobook during wind-down time or commute. It seemed to appeal to a wide range (5-13 years old) and assumes almost no prior knowledge of its subjects. The narrator's voice was pleasant and had a good use of rhythm, tone, and made good use of humor.

This is definitely not my normal genre or age of reading but when I saw this book, I was very intrigued! Useless knowledge is one of my favorite categories at trivia night (lol) and the book sounded like a fun gift for my niece and nephews.

I am so happy that I had the chance to listen to and review this fun book. I think is it a perfect read for elementary/middle school aged children - even though I was really engaged the whole time listening at 27 years old! Each fact gives plenty of room for further conversation around the topic. I think this would be so fun to read with kids on a long car ride or if you just need something to laugh at. When I was in high school I was obsessed with a Twitter account called Uncommon Facts and I checked it every day for new little things I could tell people about and this book scratched that itch for me.

My favorite fact that I learned from this book is that an octopus has nine brains! I literally had to go research right after I heard it.

The narrator was clear and kept great pace. I also like the background sounds and music. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook arc!