The narrator was very engaging, which made the conversational tone of the book even more easy and enjoyable to listen to. My only real complaint is that I wish the author had taken a more impartial view in areas of his retelling.

A very quick and entertaining history of everything for kids. From The Big Bang to Black Lives Matter, this book engages young readers on a variety of topics. I can imagine a youngster reading it and having many jumping off points. “I want to learn about Rosa Parks!” “I want to learn about dinosaurs!”

The audiobook would be a great way to keep the kids entertained on a rainy day or a long car trip.

This audio books is an absolutely engaging explanation of everything! The author/narrator was easy to listen to and made the narration interesting., The explanations and descriptions are easy to understand. So much to explore in each chapter. I think this would be a great resource for homeschool as well as enrichment for all students.

Title: Absolutely Everything!
Author: Christopher Lloyd
Narrator: Christopher Lloyd
Rating is 4 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Absolutely everything is a condensed collection of the most important or major eras of earth. It covers from the Big Bang to the modern era. Christopher Lloyd has a very soothing voice and makes it interesting. The book is somewhat chronological with rare exceptions here and there. I would recommend this book for upper elementary and middle school. It contains a lot of information and on occasion almost put me to sleep.

I received this audiobook from publisher spotlight audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Absolutely Everything! is the latest book from author Christopher Lloyd. I received a copy of the audiobook through Net Galley and was pretty happy because I’d already had it on my wish list. Absolutely Everything! is the latest attempt by an author to succinctly cover the most important moments in the history of the world. This book starts with the Big Bang and runs through today. The audiobook is narrated by Lloyd himself.

I always like to view this genre of pop-history books as mostly entertainment, rather than educational. There’s just so much ground to cover in a 6-hour listen (the book is around 350 pages) that Lloyd can’t spend much time on any single period before moving on to the next. Roughly the first half of the book is spent covering the origins of the Earth and leading up through the most prominent ancient civilizations like China, India, Rome, and Greece. From there, as written history of periods was more readily available, Lloyd expands the information a bit. That should feel familiar to anyone who’s read a book like this previously. There ends up being a big focus on the last 300 years of modern society because there are libraries full of information available about the period.

One pitfall of these kinds of books is generally that they mistake the history of white people in Western Europe for the history of the whole world in the last few millennia. In Absolutely Everything!, Lloyd acknowledges this tendency. It’s easy to tell that Lloyd was cognizant about portraying the devastating ills of colonization alongside the contribution it had in shaping the modern world as we know it. It’s still not a perfect balance, but it’s a sign of improvement and honestly was better than I would have expected going in.

Given that I treat books like Absolutely Everything! as entertainment, I guess the most pressing question is whether I found the book entertaining. The answer to that is yes. Lloyd does about as good a job as one can balancing the depth of investigation given the page space available. From an audiobook perspective, Lloyd is an effective narrator. Some authors aren’t made for narration, but Lloyd might actual be a value-added element as a narrator. Absolutely Everything! is an engaging bit of pop-history. If you’re looking to learn something new and maybe spark curiosity in something you can dive deeper into, I’d recommend giving it a listen or a read.

This audiobook is so perfect for homeschooling families, and parents who want to introduce the entire history of the world in an easy to understand format. It covers everything from the Big Bang to the present day. That is obviously a lot to cover in less than 8 hours of audio, but each topic is given enough information to get the general overview of the topic.

The chapters are broken up into short segments of about 20-30 minutes that are the perfect size for a history study each morning/evening. There is enough detail to give the general idea about the historical time period/topic discussed to grab a child's interest and lead to jumping off points for further research on the subject.

The narrator (who is also the book's author) makes the subjects even more interesting. His enthusiasm and inflection were so engaging. It was easy to want to keep listening because he brought the topics to life. My kids overheard me listening and asked me to restart the chapter because they wanted to know "how the story started." That is a true testament to how strong the narration is. It does feel like listening to a storyteller with how easy it is to listen to.

The hardcover of this book already holds a place on our homeschool shelves, but we will be adding the audiobook as well. They complement each other well and the audio truly enhances the book's information. I think this is a must buy for parents who want their child to be engaged with their history studies through the interesting topics and the top-notch narration.

First, a confession: I requested this title because I saw the author/narrator's name and thought I would be listening to a book-length explanation of everything in the universe from the actor who played Doc Brown in Back to the Future.

Spoiler alert: It's a different Christopher Lloyd. Once I got over my disappointment, I decided to give it a shot anyway, and I'm glad I did! "Absolutely Everything" is like listening to a British Bill Nye break down the origins of the universe. The author is a very engaging narrator, and the explanations and descriptions are easy fora child to understand without dumbing down complex concepts. I could see this being a great listen for a family road trip, as it would keep kids and adults engaged and give everyone a lot to think and talk about.