Big Ideas For Young Thinkers

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This book is fantastic for children who are deeper thinkers and want to know more about things such as god, life, beauty, why we exist, gender, what a soul is etc. Each section has thoughts from the author about each subject/topic being thought about and shows quites from famous thinkers throughout time.
The artwork is very colourful and eye catching and relates well to the book.
A fantastic book to get children thinking and talking with peers about the subjects mentioned in this book as discussion topics.

This is a nice introduction to philosophy for kids ages 9 and up. It's broken up into 20 questions like whether there is a God, what a soul is, what gender is, and why we exist. For each question, there is a page of text exploring what the author has thought on the topic and what "great thinkers" over the years have said about it, with lots of colorful illustrations and some quotes. There's a nice representation of women and people of color, even though these "thinkers" have traditionally not had their thoughts on these matters recorded (thus, these are mostly modern folks).

I have been wanting to introduce my kids to more philosophy for quite a while and have had some books on the subject that have done an okay job. I was hoping for a bit more from this book. The gender section disappointed me, for instance, because in today's age I hoped that "What is gender?" would have much more discussion on trans folks throughout history and cultures, non-binary folks, and other gender non-conforming people. Instead, it mostly deals with unfairness towards women over the years and only mentions the words trans and non-binary at the very end, with no discussion at all about these issues. This whole topic is glossed over with a simple statement that gender is a spectrum and instead focuses women's rights and oppression. While women's rights are a huge fundamental issue, I felt that gender identity was a real missed opportunity as one of the biggest deep questions of our era.

There's another elephant in the room in terms of modern kids and big questions, since a huge proportion of young people I know right now are terrified of the future in terms of climate change and wonder if they'll even have a world to inherit. So many kids are preoccupied with these kinds of pressing questions that it's a bit of a luxury today for them to worry about less urgent questions like "what is creativity?".

Ultimately, I just hoped for more on most of the issues in the book. My kids and I have these conversations all the time and we tend to get deeper. I would have liked to have had many more theories about life after death, souls, religion, and topics like these. This isn't a comprehensive overview of what others thought as much as a brief synopsis of what some people thought and an invitation for kids to explore their own opinions.

I appreciated the quotes by philosophers, but the cursive text was a bit hard to read at times (or at least on my digital ARC).

A timeline at the end of the book was a great visual aid in seeing when philosophers lived in relation to each other.

All in all, this is a good introduction to philosophy and to philosophers, with good inclusion for women and POC. It will be especially helpful for kids who are new to these questions.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

The author of this book recalls that she was a child who always questioned.  Often the author found her answers (or more questions) through her reading.  With this book, she is encouraging young readers to think deeply and not be afraid to question.


This book provides an introduction to philosophy and life's big questions, as for example, what happens when we die, what is human nature and so much more.  This title is divided into five chapters, Identity, Life, Truth, Culture, and Creativity.  Within each are questions to explore and the thoughts of philosophers and thinkers on the topic.  For example, there are quotes on human nature from Plato, Salman Rushdie,  Noam Chomskey and others.  In a section on is god real, there are quotes from Maya Angelou and Karl Marx.


Early in the book, the author suggests ways to respectfully listen and disagree with others.  She also notes that everyone can change their mind about something.


This book is colorfully and brightly illustrated.  It is a great resource.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.


#BigIdeasForYoungThinkers #NetGalley

For a children’s book this one was heavy. I spent so much time reading and re reading pages because the ideas in them were so big yet simple. Race, gender, justice, religion. You name it and all of the big hot button topics are here. While this book is targeted to a younger audience I absolutely think anyone could take away a new point of view from its pages.

I loved the illustrations and the colors. And I loved the content. I need to have this one when it is released in a solid form so I can re read it and really have A proper look at it.

This is a fantastic book to spark deep conversations in young readers. It seems as this is more geared towards teens as the topics are quite heavy. It touches upon race, gender, the meaning of life and more.

This is one book that is very unique. It introduces young readers to philosophical ideas and encourages children to ask questions and not feel bad about that. I love the ideas brought up here, the explanations and the illustrations. I am a sucker for illustrations and these are great! I just put this into my library's cart to be ordered. It will be a great addition to our library.

As a lifelong Montessorian, I appreciate the goal of this book. When I was a child, I learned to think outside of the box and to question all that was around me, to try to discover the truth for myself. I was constantly curious and loved to research different ideas and concepts that I ran across. Even now as an adult, I still do the same thing. I find myself traveling down rabbit holes to learn more about different opinions or to get more information on a topic. And as a Montessori educator, I always tried to inspire my kids to do the same thing.

This book is intense. I do love how it starts off explaining that you are never going to agree with everybody. It's important to still be respectful and listen to what someone else has to say. Be respectful in how you present your own ideas. Own up to any mistakes that you may make, whether in fact or how you present your ideas. But also protect yourself from those who are overly negative. Set healthy boundaries. I think these are all concepts that we have forgotten, if my social media feeds over the past two years or so are any indication.

And then the book gets into a lot of big topics that do not have easy answers. Each concept is discussed with a variety of different views on it over the centuries. Important people's names are listed in bold print, as encouragement to look them up should the paragraph be appealing to the reader. So many great quotations from a wide range of sources are found throughout. And there are probing questions to help the reader start to really reflect on each topic.

I think if this book is presented at an elementary age, it needs to be reserved for those who are more mature readers. I really think teenagers are more likely to be in a place where they are ready to tackle the conversations around most of these topics. And while I think it is important for the kids to reflect on how they feel about each topic, it is important for them to know there are trusted adults with whom they can converse about each of these topics, with no judgment or shame for expressing their thoughts, opinions, and questions. You could spend a year going over all of this information and digesting it.

I think adults could even benefit from revisiting some of the topics in here and refreshing their brains with the different points of view over time, to really help them understand their own opinions and perhaps learn something new. I know it provoked me to think more about certain topics.

I gave it four stars overall.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I requested this book thinking it would be suitable for me to read with my 5 year old. I didn't end up reading it with him; I think the book was intended for a slightly more mature audience. I read the book and thought it was great for older children and will certainly be recommending in work to adults with older children.

I would have absolutely loved this book as as kid. The sections were really interesting and the illustrations were ridiculously gorgeous. Now I personally don't exactly agree with everything in the book, mainly just the pages on gender but overall its a great book.