100 Whys

A hundred questions kids actually ask - answered in one page each.

Why does a cactus have spines instead of leaves? How does a dolphin sleep without drowning? Why can't we feel the Earth spinning?

Children ask brilliant questions and usually get vague answers. This book gives them a real one. Every question gets a full page: a detailed hand-drawn diagram that explains it at a glance, a short answer in plain language with no jargon to decode, and one simple thing to go and try before turning over.

What's inside

• Plants and Trees - why leaves are green, how a seed knows which way is up, what tree rings really count
• Bugs and Creepy-Crawlies - how a firefly makes light, why moths chase lamps, how an ant lifts more than its own body
• Birds - why geese fly in a V, how an owl turns its head so far, why a woodpecker never gets a headache
• Animals - how a cat purrs, why zebras have stripes, whether animals dream
• In the Sea - why the sea is salty, how an octopus changes colour, how deep the deepest water goes
• Weather and Sky - where a puddle goes, why clouds don't fall, what makes the sound of thunder
• Your Body - why we yawn, what causes hiccups, why we have fingerprints
• Earth and Space - why the Earth is round, what stars are made of, why astronauts float

Built for reading together. Start anywhere. Nothing depends on the page before it, so a child can flip to whatever they are curious about today. Best for ages six to ten - younger children enjoy the drawings, older ones enjoy arguing with the answers.

Large format. 8.5 x 11 inches, so every diagram is big enough to read across a table.

A hundred pages. A hundred answers. And the questions they ask next are the point.