Just So Stories

What We Know and What We Don’t

Walker Books

September 2025

Imprint: Britannica Books

ISBN13: 9781804661499

Australia RRP: $64.99

New Zealand RRP: $67.99

Last year I reviewed another of Christopher Lloyd’s amazing fat-as-mud books of EVERYTHING and it was just great. This is an updated edition of the Children’s Brittanica which went totally gangbusters on best-seller lists. Now, I don’t want to alarm you at all but I’m already commissioned to write a Christmas themed cover story for a local magazine and in this week’s parcels several Christmas titles have arrived. Yes, I do know it’s only August – but did you see that?????? whoooooooooooosh!!!!!! That was the first half of the year and now it’s going to galumph all the way until the start of December.

You will all, I know, have kiddos who will salivate over this [I know I would have as nerdy kid me] and whether those are the kiddos in your libraries, or some Small in your family who is an info-nut, this will be one of the best and most appreciated purchases you make this year. I grant you, it’s not cheap but it is totally magnificent.

Just hark to this blurb:  …up-to-the-minute facts, figures and images, featuring everything from supernovas to Taylor Swift, and from ancient Egypt to artificial intelligence.

Earth, Space, Animals, History, STEM: This landmark encyclopedia from Britannica has them all! With more than 400 pages of up-to-the-minute information, including the very latest facts and figures, cutting-edge expert insights and over 1,000 illustrations, photographs and maps, this gorgeous compendium will satisfy even the most curious minds. 

What I particularly love about this is that it’s not organised alphabetically as many similar encyclopedia are but rather, it is chronological. Starting with the beginning of time up to nowadays and, even conjecturing on the future, each chapter takes the reader on a journey from start to finish e.g., the beginning of the Universe to what’s happening now and could happen in the future.

The illustrations are fabulous and I also love the FACTastic boxes of brief snippets of info. This is one hefty chunk of quiet time for grown-ups and satisfying curiosity time for kiddos. I’ve been browsing it, on and off, for days and still delighting in its contents. Anyone from around 8 years upwards who has an enquiring mind and a passion to know ‘stuff’ will love it and I’m giving it a rating as hefty as the book itself with a 5 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠rating.