What If… Your Gifted Child Just Found Their New Favorite Book

I will admit it -I am a little bit of a nerd. I am married to a software developer physicist. Honestly, I like taking tests. Need I say more? But when my husband recommended that I read What If… Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, I was skeptical that I would enjoy it. I’m nerdy, but not really a physicist by any stretch of the imagination. However, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book! It has been a long time since I have had actual “laugh out loud” reading material. And the best part? You don’t even have to have a PHD – or any degree – to enjoy it! In fact, I found this book to be a great way of connecting with my gifted 12 and 10 year old sons (who also love this book!)

Book covers of Randall Munroe's What It? Books 1 and 2 with a text "delightfully nerdy" review on a notepad

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What Makes What If? So Great?

The What If? series is for all of those kids -gifted or not – out there who are always contemplating crazy, sometimes beyond silly hypothetical questions. Ever wonder what would happen if the earth stopped spinning? Have you pondered how many printers it would take to keep up a current printed version of Wikipedia? Or our favorite: What would happen if you built the periodic table of elements, but each block was made of that material.

periodic table as drawn by randall munroe in the book What If?

What If? This Book Encourages Curiosity

Randall Munroe has compiled user submitted questions* and answered them with more than a “Because I said so” answer. It is the ultimate pool of imaginative brains asking questions most people never even think to consider.

It is my personal experience that gifted kids need to know WHY. The author uses (funny) easy to understand science and terminology to explain what would hypothetically happen (or not happen) for the selected scenarios.

I had no idea what a neutrino was before reading this book. Do I still fully understand what it is – even after a pillow talk discussion about them with my Mr. Physics sweetheart? Not really. But did I learn something and was my mind mind blown about the amazingness and complexity of our world? Absolutely. Could such an obscure, but humorous selection of text inspire an aspiring scientist to begin their journey to winning a Nobel Prize in Physics? Definitely a possibility.

*Side Note: I may have sent an email to whatif@xkcd.com recently in hopes of landing in the purely hypothetical (BUT PLEASE WRITE IT) What If? 3. If you stumble upon a story of a fourth grader arguing with their teacher about astronauts and the water cycle – that was me. (PLEASE, Randall!?)

What If? They are Learning Through Laughter

As stated in my introduction, I legit laughed out loud during many parts of these books. This book captures “Brevity is the soul of wit” absolutely perfectly. The delivery of comedic content is *chefs kiss.* The author completely understands his audience and the things that they find funny. References to popular (and sometimes geeky) fandom abound – including Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Mario, Firefly, and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. (And yes, we love them all at our house.) Even if you don’t like these things, you will quite possibly still enjoy this book!)

You must read the footnotes!! Normally, the footnotes* are just there for extra information – in case you want it. However, in this book, the footnotes absolutely make the entire book hilarious. Trust me.

*Sidenote on Footnote Enjoyment Tip: While you can access this book as an ebook, I would recommend reading the physical copy+. There is a little lost clicking back and forth between the book, the comic images, and the footnotes.

+Sidenote to the Footnote Sidenote: Knowing this, I had originally checked this book out from the library to read instead of using Libby. But when I couldn’t read my borrowed copy due to my kid taking it to school to share with his friend, I may have added all 4 of his books to my Amazon cart and had them on my doorstep by the next morning. Any book my kids are excited to read – shut up and take my money.

I can’t believe I failed to mention the plethora of his famous stick person comics and diagrams interspersed through each What If question. From hilarious intrusive thoughts, jabs at the monarchy, epic explosions, to Yoda hooked up to a voltage meter, you can’t help but read with a continuous dorky grin on your face. I dare you.

What If? They Are Creating Connections

As mentioned previously, my kids have come to love this book series. Instead of doom scrolling on their devices with friends, I’ve head them passionately discussing variations of scenarios, laughing at and quoting the comics together, and all around having a grand old time. Pretty awesome for an old school book, eh?

12 year old reading his favorite chapter of what if? by randall munroe

Final Thoughts

What If… Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is an absolute Six Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for gifted and slightly nerdy readers. And yes, that is six stars. Five Star reviews are for unimaginative reviewers unwilling to think outside the box.

Introduce your deep thinker to What If? today and maybe they will be the next Randall Munroe of tomorrow.

Final Funny Sidenote: As I was writing this book review, I noticed another hidden gem – the hardback jacket cover has a map of the Earth as it would look with water pouring through a portal to Mars printed on the inside! If this isn’t a testament to how creative and well-thought out this book is, I am not sure what is!