Monday, February 10, 2014

Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am? And Hundreds More Big Questions From Little People Answered By Experts, by Gemma Elwin Harris

Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?
And Hundreds More Big Questions From Little People Answered By Experts 
Author: Gemma Elwin Harris
Contributors: Sir David Attenborough, Brian Cox, Miranda Hart, Bear Grylls, Quentin Blake, and more
Introduction by: Alexander Armstrong
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Publication Date: October 3, 2013
Source: NetGalley
View on Amazon


Such a great idea for a book! It's no secret that I'm a sucker for these types of books of weird facts aimed at ten-year-olds, and have been since I was a ten-year-old myself. This one is particularly great because the authors enlisted the help of actual kids (from schools across England, mostly 9-11 year olds) to submit questions they most wanted answered, then they approached various celebrity experts to answer them. The experts range from chef Heston Blumenthal to illustrator Quentin Blake, with a lot of TV doctors and hosts of science shows thrown in.

And the answer to the titular question (which was not, I was disappointed to learn, the first in the book but instead buried mid-way)? Does your goldfish know who you are? Well sort of. It probably has a longer memory than the oft-quoted three seconds, and evne small fish can remember when and where they get their food, but it likely can't recognize your face.

My favourite question in the book? "Why are Quentin Blake's drawings so messy?" To which Quentin Blake replies, "They are not messy! It takes ages to get the lines exactly as I want them!"

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