My Weird School Fast Facts

Gutman, Dan. My Weird School Fast Facts: Sports
                      My Weird School Fast Facts: Geography
June 21st 2016 by HarperCollins
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

A.J. and Andrea from the My Weird School series narrate these collections of random facts. Their pictures appear before the facts they present, and the two carry on a joking back-and-forth about how boring and irrelevant the other is as they offer up tidbits of information. 

In Sports, the chapters are broken down into the major sports like football, baseball and basketball, with additional chapters devoted to golf and other sports. There are random things mentioned, such as how referees have to wear black underwear in case they split their pants. There were a lot of things mentioned that I had never heard before, so it was an interesting read. 

In Geography, there are chapters devoted to The Earth, Continents, Water; Mountains, Deserts and Forests; The Fifty United States; and Natural Disasters. Again, A.J. and Andrea both chime in with snippits of knowledge. 

These would make great gifts for reluctant readers, because the information is funny and intriguing, but also short and well illustrated. These aren't quite what I would pick up for fun; I'd rather read a 300 page book on the history of Cadbury chocolate, instead of short unconnected facts, but my students don't. Gutman is always fun to read, but I wish he would come out with some more stand alone fiction. The My Weird School series is definitely on the elementary side of the Pilkey Line.