My wife and I are blessed to be the proud parents of three boys, one who is on the autism spectrum. Our 15 year old spectrum child loves trivia, especially if it pertains to geography, so I thought The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2016 would be a fun book for him. However, what we found was this book is anything but trivial. This huge, 1008 page, paper-back book has every bit of information that you can think of.

The first section, titled “2015: Special Features and Year in Review” covers such things as the Top 10 News Topics, World at a Glance, Obituaries, U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, Offbeat News, and Historical Anniversaries just to name a few. We have especially found that the Election 2016 section is very informative and timely. It gives dates for debates, primaries and caucuses, and party conventions.

The rest of the book gives up to date facts for almost every area of life including:

• Economy, Business, & Energy
• Crime
• Military Affairs
• Health & Vital Statistics
• Personalities, Arts, & Media
• Science & Technology
• Consumer Information
• S. Facts & History
• World Maps & Flags
• S. Government
• S. Cities, States, & Population
• World History & Culture
• Nations Of The World
• Sports

Many of the topics covered are lists such as noted personalities of the present and past and Nobel Prize winners to name a very few. Some facts contain short explanations. A few topics, such as Biographies of the Presidents contain a few short paragraphs. All of the information, however, is fascinating.

If your family is full of fact and trivia lovers as my family is, then you will enjoy the information found in this book. I have the unusual but fascinating sections such as Meat Consumption Per Capita in Selected Nations, Celestial Events Highlights, 2016 and Olympic Champions very interesting. My middle child, who is a history and geography lover, has enjoyed the colorful world maps, biographies of presidents and country information.

I appreciate the fact that all of this information is at your fingertips and I don’t have to sift through scores of websites to find exactly what I need. We have already used this in our homeschool and I can see so many more ways that this book will be used in the future. Because there is so much information in this book, the typeset is smaller than most books, however, there is a large print hardcover edition available.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2016 would make an excellent addition to any homeschool library and can be found at any major book retailer. All websites that I have looked at list it for under $10 which I feel is a great value for this useful resource.

-Product review by Tim Tinkel, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2016