“Mind-expanding and hilarious! I got smarter reading this!”—Jeff Kinney, author of the international bestselling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid

 

Science meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid in this original middle-grade fiction series that blends science with narrative from bestselling author Jorge Cham, the Emmy Award–nominated creator of PBS’s Elinor Wonders Why

 

Oliver needs a new computer because nobody wants to play with him as every move and save takes way too long. To raise money, he has the brilliant idea to write another book and sell it at school. So, he picks a topic he thinks lots of kids will like—animals. But when he starts to think about it, he wonders where do animals come from, and that leads him to wonder where life comes from and how animals evolve. Subjects range from the origins of life (primordial soup and life in early Earth—mostly scum/bacteria) to small organisms and fish to dinosaurs, of course! Mass extinctions. Cats, dogs, horses and chickens. And oh yes, people!

 

Along with making his new book, Oliver’s also doing chores for neighbors to make money, including odd jobs for the old cat lady down the street, who, as it turns out, is a retired paleontologist. (Not just any paleontologist, but as it’s revealed later, a famous one.) As Oliver does chores for her, she fills him in on the history of life on earth.

 

Meanwhile, Oliver is doing great with his group of friends. But as they all get excited to help him with the book, this causes trouble, leading to a mild breakup of the group which all gets resolved at the end in typical Oliver-esque humorous fashion.

 

With laugh-out-loud humor from bestselling writer and the creator of PHD Comics Jorge Cham, Oliver’s Great Big Universe is a STEAM-themed, diary-style series following one kid who’s taking on the whole universe—if he can survive middle school first.