Breezy, bolshy, bizarre – a fun science primer for kids

The most popular children’s reference books tend to be those that place the emphasis on breadth rather than depth, condensing vast swathes of science and history into a series of jaw-dropping statistics. (If all the people in China stood on each other’s shoulders, they would form a tower five times higher than the distance between Earth and the Moon!)

How to Be a Genius Kid by Waldo Pancake – real name: Jim Smith – follows in a trusted tradition, promising to show the reader how to “get super brainy with zero effort”. Pancake has already had huge success with his Barry Loser books, telling the story of a boy who wants to be cool; here, he deploys a similar graphic-novel format, using two cartoon characters called Graham and Flea as narrators. Graham has a genius for facts, and Flea has a genius for “making ’em non-boring” – skills they decide to combine by co-authoring a book. “Caution,” we are warned, “this book will LITERALLY teach you how to be a… Genius Kid!” – and then we embark on eight lessons, covering everything from the Big Bang to the human brain.

The emphasis, however, is firmly on entertainment rather than instruction. For while Graham is a mine of information – “did you know … a cat has 32 muscles in its ears!” – Flea delights in driving the lessons off-course: “When you said about cat ears, it reminded me of sumpfing I’ve always thought about cat ears… They look like tiny, hairy pizza slices!’” And while Graham can spell words such as “millennium”, Flea cannot: “Mis-spelling stuff is a sign of grate intelly-genz… You might spot a few [mistakes] as you flit through these paygiz [but] they’re all completely and utterly on pamplemousse. I mean purpose.”

Nevertheless, despite the larky tone, the narrative is slyly informative. In one chapter, the friends discuss the derivatives of words, and contemplate the death of Latin as a spoken language. “How do languages die?” “People stop speaking them, I s’pose.” Some of the information is quite complex. In a science lesson, for example, we touch on everything from molecules to the Olfactory bulb – “It means ‘sense of smell’ or something” – and in a section on numbers, we learn about ancient Babylonian counting techniques.

By playing off his two narrators, Pancake presents everything in such a way that curious readers can explore further, while less curious ones will not be frightened off: “Here’s the symbol for infinity.” “Infinity, eh? Bit like dis chapter if you don’t hurry up.” Some young minds might struggle, however, when Flea and Graham discuss the facts of life: “‘Was your dad preggers too?” Graham asks, as they consider their arrival in the world. “No,” Flea replies, “but he did wear a fake belly… To see how it felt for my mum, I s’pose.”

How to Be a Genius Kid is published by Faber at £9.99. To order your copy, call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books