There Are No Silly Questions: More than 200 Weird and Wacky Questions, Expertly Answered! - Mike Rampton - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Mike Rampton

ILLUSTRATOR: Guilherme Karsten

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction

PUBLICATION DATE: October 14, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A Q&A-styled nonfiction for middle-graders. Contains some interesting questions and some equally interesting answers. Given the title, I expected the questions to be more whimsical and wacky, but these are far and few between. Informative. A good gift option if you are looking for a different kind of encyclopaedic book covering multiple subjects.

Author Mike Rampton’s daughter once asked him a question he couldn’t answer. This simple incident led to a wonderful and worthy revelation – there are no silly questions. Thus began the ideation of this book, wherein the author noted more than 200 “silly” questions and the answers for each.

I love that the book begins with two “silly questions” right on the title page, questions of which most book-loving readers would surely enjoy the answers.

Questions are unfortunately not given enough importance in discussions, whether at home or in the classroom. Several adults even actively discourage kids from asking questions, considering them insolent or idiotic. However, studies have shown that asking the correct questions can enhance retention and improve understanding by up to 150%. And as the title clearly indicates, there are no silly questions.

The book covers more than 200 questions from various subjects, ranging from science and its branches to mathematics to geography and history and anthropology and a lot more. The content is interesting, and written in a language that is topic-appropriate without being overwhelming. Some questions do include some tougher vocabulary, but nothing that a quick Google search cannot resolve. There’s also a helpful glossary at the end of the book that explains many of the more difficult terms.

Given the quirky title, I expected the questions to be far more creative and wild. However, many of the questions are fairly standard, such as “Why do we burp?”, “What’s the largest number in the world?”, “Why does cutting onions make you cry?”, “Who invented the umbrella?”, and so on. While these are also extremely interesting questions, I wouldn’t call these ‘silly’ queries. Plus, many of these are commonly found in encyclopaedias and trivia books.

Thankfully, the book does have some truly quirky questions as well. “How do babies think when they don’t know any words?”, “Why don’t we go on vacation by helicopter?”, “How healthy would vampires be if they were real?”, “Why aren’t bananas straight?” – all examples of good querying and lateral thinking. These are the questions I took the book for, and the answers of these are what I enjoyed most.

Basically, about half the book contains routine fare that can be found in various other such compilations. The feel in these questions is more like ordinary curiosity than extraordinary goofiness. But the remaining queries do touch upon the unusual and the bizarre. Queries that most ordinary people wouldn’t even have thought of, forget about having the answer to. These make the book fun.

I wish the queries had been organised in some way. Though there is a themed index at the end, the actual content jumps across random topics. It would have been better to organise them by subject.

The page space is used well. There are one or two questions per page. The question is written in a clear and large typeface, while the answer is typed below it in a more regular font. Every question comes with its own all-colour illustration.

Overall, this is definitely an entertaining and educational resource. Though many included questions feel more like queries of standard curiosity, there are enough whimsical wonderings to justify the title of the book.

I hope kids can learn not just fun trivia from this book but also that every question is justified, no matter how odd it sounds. It is only by asking questions that we can find answers. So keep calm and query on.

Recommended to ages 8-12, though older teens can also give this a try.

My thanks to Nosy Crow for providing the DRC of “There Are No Silly Questions” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.