This book of course cannot truly cover everything, but it does cover a great deal of history, and in the process gives a framework for deeper excursions later into specific parts. This book is a good fit for middle school kids, and upper elementary kids if they are good readers and interested in history.

After reading through an ARC of this book, I decided to order it as a homeschool resource to use as a science and history read-aloud. I really enjoy "A Little History of the World" as a read-aloud for history (big bang to WWII, as the author wrote it in that time), but this is a much more detailed and science-oriented book and much more thorough. I'll be reading it to my 8, 12 and 16 y/o's as they color, craft, build, sketch etc. in the afternoons (they like listening far more when they can occupy their hands). I like that it's informative enough for older kids while fun enough for younger, and the illustrations and photographs add to the appeal. I'm sure my kids will like Lloyd's conversational, funny tone, and I appreciate that it is science-based. I've noticed several reviews from Young Earth creationists who reviewed it poorly because it discusses evolution, the Big Bang, etc. Yes, it is definitely geared towards secular science instead of creationism.

I'll update my review when we've finished reading it as a family with the kids' perspectives and report on how well it worked as a homeschool resource.

A good resource for the middle grade crowd - a fairly basic history that takes pains to not be your typical Eurocentric history-of-the-world resource.

Lloyd's book is aptly titled as Absolutely Everything is included in this children's encyclopedia. Beginning with the Big Bang and ending with modern social history that promotes the need for learning and understanding history, Lloyd left no major advancement or achievement untouched. The selected events felt balanced and the images and graphics brought many topics to life. This book would be perfect in any student's bedroom.

Thank you NetGalley and What on Earth Books for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

The history of the world from the Big Bang to today is covered in ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!, a brilliant new book with beautiful illustrations geared to middle grade readers. Author Christopher Lloyd includes a lot of material in this 352-page compendium, chock full of intriguing stories on how the earth came to be, the history of wars, climates, animals, cultures, inventions, and so much more. You name it, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! has the answer. 5/5

Thanks to the author, Myrick Marketing & Media, LLC and NetGalley for the review copy, in exchange for my true opinions.

#WhatonEarth #NetGalley

This book is an encyclopedia-like reference book coving history from the big bang through the present day. It's a good starting point to learn about a topic, just like an encyclopedia. It gives enough information to introduce topics in history before doing more detailed research. I think this book could be a valuable addition to small libraries that are short on space and budgets. I love the layout of each section. The illustrations and pictures add to the articles in each section, and the timelines at the beginning give a good overview of what to expect when reading through each section.

For Kids - An Ambitious Timeline of Historical Highlights

O.K., so let's pretend you're a kid. (And if you are a kid, good for you.) What do you know about things, what do you sort of know, and what do you have no idea about? If the answer is "a little, some, and a lot", then this book could be very interesting. The hook is that the book starts with the Big Bang and covers everything up to what happened yesterday. That's sort of jokey, but what does the book actually accomplish?

Well, it's a bit of a bumpy ride because the author does have to keep switching gears. We start with the Big Bang, which gets once-over-easy treatment. We move on to planetary science and some cosmology. Soon enough we focus on Earth, and do plate tectonics and the like. All of this is done briskly and it seemed to me that it was so brief it worked mostly just to get some big ideas on the table. Luckily, from that start we move on to the emergence of life and move through the various geologic ages of Earth, pointing out interesting life forms, (dinosaurs!), as we go. This is more familiar territory and is very kid friendly.

The book picked up more appeal and interest for me when we got to the emergence of humans and early civilizations. This is a big chunk of the book, (about a third), and falls into that broad "World Civilization" category. Africa, China and India get a lot of overdue attention before we turn our focus to Europe, and that alone recommended the book to me. Plus, once we get to the fall of Rome the book switches gears and heads to the Americas, including, amazingly, mostly South America, which never seems to get much attention in these world histories. So again, I was impressed by the range exhibited here. Now, this World Civilization part is a bit bumpy, (mostly from the picking and choosing the author had to do), and the tone varies from a bit jokey to more in depth, but it all struck me as a fairly credible attempt to touch on the big ideas - Greece, Rome, the Fertile Crescent, Persia, Egypt, China, the Indus Valley, major religions, the pre-Columbian Americas.

A bit past the half-way mark we turn to a more traditional framework. We start with a generous nod to the intellectual accomplishments of the Muslim World, go Medieval in Europe, then skip to global exploration, revolutions in science, and then the various nations of the world at various wars between 1845 and 1945. Obviously there are some big gaps there, since the last chapter is just a pretty short treatment of the post-World War II era. The upshot, to me, is that this ended up feeling a bit like "Ancient" World Civ with a long postscript, which actually made sense on reflection.

But of course the book can't really be about everything. As a world timeline that hit the early big ticket items and then surveyed events closer to the present, this actually worked pretty well. It's as evenhanded as such a project could be, and shallow in many places, but it is aimed at younger readers and seems to be intended to at least get a lot of the places, people, events and ideas that matter into a kid reader's head. On that score this worked fairly well and I wouldn't hesitate to put this into a young readers hands.

Reflecting on this, I thought about all of those time/place travel chapter books like "Magic Treehouse" and "Time Warp Trio" and the like. Kids in those books are always going to Rome or Egypt or the Great Wall of China or Mayan Temples. This book strings all of that together into a coherent story and time line. If that's all an elementary school or middle grade reader gets - an annotated timeline with a worldwide range - that's quite an achievement.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The cover art will make you want to open this book. That's a given. Inside though, be ready for words like "probably," "maybe," and "perhaps."

Starting from a detailed description of the Big Bang Theory to the tossing out of numbers like "13.8billion users ago" giant red flags popped up in my mind. I don't carry beliefs of either of those. However, as a reviewer and a homeschooling parent, I know that there are many beliefs out there in the world at large (aka Worldview) and it is wise to know what "others think" as we are all part of this human race.

I continued on in this book from that point of view: that this is definitely, unequivocally NOT a book written with a young Earth view and Creationism in mind. If a family holds to other beliefs than what is presented as facts within this book, they'd want to sit along side and read with or at least have discussions with the child over the course of the book. That aside...

I can say the language used throughout the text is definitely written to upper elementary level kids and older. Junior high grades would be spot-on. A younger child might enjoy being read to from this book while looking at the illustrations. Original drawings are scattered throughout along with a sprinkling of photographs, making the entire book visually appealing. The reader is helped along the way to keep the time period being discussed in mind with the righthand side "timeline" on the page edges.

Difficult concepts are conversationally explained to the reader often while calling the reader to action such as "Remember when ..." or asking them a question directly. Quotations from scientists and doctors as well as small illustrations depicting snippets from the adjacent large body of text, does leave the book often wavering on the edge of feeling like a textbook at times. Again, though, the conversational style writing is well-played for the intended audience of the readers verging into and ensconced in the middle school level of thinking.

One can easily justify this book for purchase. This is a hefty book that simply retells thoughts, hypotheses, theories, and popular belief. It isn't all encompassing and defends that impossibility early on, regardless of the title. Whether used to strengthen ones knowledge base, get a quick glimpse at a variety of things and how they fit into the timeline, or used as a pros/cons volume of conversation starters, this book holds it own value on a bookshelf. Home educators would definitely get use from this book no matter what side of "all that so-called science" they stand on.