• The book will include an ‘Out takes’ chapter in which comedians, columnists and raconteurs give witty, alternative answers to the Big Questions, as well a list of the funniest kids’ questions

• Big Questions from Little People includes an all-star roster of contributors with huge twitter followings, including Derren Brown (more than one million), Bear Grylls (578,000) Alain de Botton (170,000), Jane Goodall (110,000), Richard Dawkins (314,000), Carl Zimmer (95,789).

• A portion of the book’s proceeds will be distributed to British and American charities.

Many of the questions children ask in the course of growing up, can stump even the best educated adult: Why can’t I tickle myself? Are we all related? Do animals have feelings, too? Who named all the cities? Do aliens exist? What makes me me? Is it okay to eat a worm? Who invented chocolate? If the universe started from nothing, how did it become something? How do you fall in love? Who is god? How do chefs get ideas for foods? Why are some people mean?

Following the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, Schott’s Miscellany books, and E. H. Gombrich’s Little History of the World comes this charming and informative collection that reveals how the world works—compiled from schoolchildren’s actual questions and explained by the world’s greatest experts, including primatologist Jane Goodall, evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins, bestselling authors Matt Ridley, Mary Roach, and Phillip Pullman, chef Gordon Ramsay, adventurist Bear Gryllis, naturalist and documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough, linguist Noam Chomsky. These, and many others, provide pithy, easy-to-understand answers to more than one hundred common, charming, and sometimes humorous questions posed by children between the ages of seven and eleven.

Beautifully packaged and illustrated; smart; illuminating; and essential, Big Questions from Little People is a timeless gift, a handbook for perplexed parents and curious children.