Ask Me Anything!: Strange But True Answers to 99 Wacky Questions

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

Ask Me Anything! is sure to be a hit with junior- and intermediate-grade
trivia buffs. However, the subtitle is somewhat deceiving. While some of
the questions undoubtedly may be deemed “wacky,” the majority are
not. Divided loosely into sections about animals, bodies, customs, food,
holidays, inventions, superstitions, useful information, words and
phrases, and the natural world, questions run the gamut from “Why are
beans the musical fruit?” and “Why do ladies and girls have to shave
their legs and armpits?” to “What was the first Web site?” and
“Why does snow sparkle?” Many answers dispel common myths (e.g., the
belief that a camel stores water in its hump; in truth, the hump holds
up to 45.5 kilograms of fat, not water). Others, such as the list of 96
two-letter words accepted in Scrabble or the 100 most common words in
English, provide useful information.

The author occasionally inserts interesting trivia not directly related
to the questions. For example, we are told that according to the
Guinness Book of World Records, the largest chicken dance was performed
by 72,000 people at Canfield Fair in Ohio. In a “Speaking of Spices”
footnote, we learn that salt was once so rare and precious that it was
traded for equal amounts of gold. Jokes and riddles are interspersed
throughout, adding to the enjoyment, as do the humorous, cartoonlike
illustrations by Tina Holdcroft. This book might just be the perfect way
to get reluctant readers “hooked on reading.” Recommended.