A mother -- and a writer -- Mary Elting has first hand experience with the unending stream of questions children ask. Emily Baker, of the San Bernardino County School system, has contributed her experience on the character and incidence of children's questions. Others in the fields of science and natural history have checked on the accuracy of the text. And together their efforts have resulted in The Answer Book which should provide many thousands of desperate parents with the shortcuts they need in keeping pace with the questions on every conceivable subject their children are asking. The Hows and Whys and Whats and Whens and Wheres of a wide range of subjects are succinctly answered, and an index at the back, which provides cross reference to subjects and pictures; ten sections broken down into specific questions in individual tables of contents make the book a useful information tool which the inquiring youngster will use constantly. But it is to the parents we particularly recommend it. The areas covered include: Traveling into Space; The Wonderful Animal World; How Does It Work? How Did They Do It? Information Please; Beginnings; What Makes Things and Why? Friends and Enemies; How Do We Know? This differs from Frances Chrystie's The First Book of Surprising Facts (Watts--1956) in that that book is a miscellany of facts, anecdotes, etc. and makes no attempt to be an organized set of related topics.