Totally random facts

Chewing gum, robots, the Olympics, holidays, and a diverse range of men and women who changed the world are just a few of the wide-ranging topics in this collection of infobites. The author of several volumes in the Totally Random Questions series packs several thousand factoids into this loosely organized compilation. Animals, the planet Earth, and the human body are some of the broad categories into which Bellows has sorted page after page of facts, each separated by alternating text colors and bullet points or a blank line. Colorful photographs, often captioned, break up the text. Many spreads include boxes with information on related subjects with particular appeal: chocolate, more environmentally friendly cars, the Women's National Basketball Association, and panda babies, for example. Three spot-the-difference photo games add to the fun. Many of the topics were also subjects for slightly more extensive treatment in her previous books; they're likely to generate considerable interest. But in reducing the information here to one or two sentences, the writer sometimes simplifies or generalizes to the point of inaccuracy. There's little scaffolding to help readers retain what they've read and sometimes only the most general sort of attribution to what experts believe. A useful index provides a way into the collection for readers looking for specifics. But, like all such collections, the enjoyment will lie mostly in the discovery. Another entertaining resource for the pursuit of trivia. (index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.