This is a really interesting overview with a good selection of topics and covering many parts of the world as well as hundreds of thousands of years. I think this would be a great book to give to a child, and even as an adult I found it interesting as there were some things I hadn't heard about or had forgotten. I also really liked the illustrations. 

Some of the jokes and attempts to speak to modern kids were a bit annoying (though as an adult I'm not the intended audience).