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Find out moreHow? Why? When? What? And Where? Kids are fascinated with the world around them and are like sponges ready to absorb details and statistics - and take great pleasure in remembering all sorts of wonderful and weird facts! This section picks a selection of non-fiction titles - we also have specialist collections on all sorts of subjects including History, Music, Science, Space, People & Places and much more!
This wonderful picture book explores themes of empathy, mindfulness and personal growth through the eyes of a child. Beautifully written and illustrated by the aw ard-winning artist Emma Carlisle, What Do You See When You Look At a Tree? urges readers to reconnect with nature by asking questions that encourage critical thinking and reflection on their own development, as well as helping to establish a deeper appreciation for the environment and their place within it. Stunning watercolour and hand-finished artw ork draws parallels to the bestselling The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, and evokes the classic nostalgia of E. H. Shephard's much-loved Winnie-the-Pooh.
We are all on Earth but for a fleeting moment, yet no two lives are the same. From the delicate mayfly, which lives for just a few precious hours, to the death-defying immortal jellyfish, this book about animal life cycles is a celebration of creatures big and small. Beautifully written by bestselling children's author Lily Murray, this book explores lifespans across the animal kingdom. Beginning with the very shortest, and ending w ith the longest, learn about the lives of the incredible monarch butterfly, the mysterious axolotl, the grand Galápagos tortoise and many more in this uplifting and eye-opening book. It has never been more important to appreciate and understand the diversity of life. Stunning illustrations by highly-commended artist Jesse Hodgson perfectly capture each animal in their natural habitat, making this the ideal gift book as well as educational.
From its attention-grabbing title to its lively, inclusive illustrations, this is a book which will instantly attract young readers to pick it up and, once opened, they will be completely engaged by this first-rate explanation of genetics. The concept of every individual thing having its own recipe is one that is firmly anchored in what young children can understand from their own lived experience and the facts are quite literally mind-boggling and certainly added to my own knowledge. It had (foolishly) never really occurred to me that we would have genetic links to plants or that a grain of rice could have more genes than a human being. Explaining about “bossy” dominant genes, and what genetic characteristics we share with other creatures and then what percentage we share (99 % with chimps of course) leads to an understanding of how alike we all are- we are 99.9% identical to every other human on earth and yet we are all uniquely ourselves. This is not just an important scientific concept beautifully explained, but, through words and images, it carries the message of understanding, empathy and tolerance for others. An essential addition to school and home libraries.
Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Awards 2022 Best Books with Facts | An international best-seller, translated into 25 languages Often human scientists try and solve a problem or invent a new tool and they realise that animals have already invented it for them. In this book you will meet the animal inventors who have shared their super inventing powers to make amazing things for humans.
Having covered Amazing Birds and Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures with flair, acclaimed artist, illustrator and passionate bird-watcher Matt Sewell here turns his unique eye and brilliant brush-strokes to another of nature’s awe-inspiring phenomena - amazing migrations. Covering fauna (and flora) from all corners of the globe, this is a treasure trove of insights and visual delights that will have young animal-lovers poring over it for hours. Featuring all kinds of animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects - Atlas of Amazing Migration is packed with fascinating facts delivered in an engaging, witty style. The painted lady butterfly, for example, is described as being “common as muck” but “a force to be reckoned with” before we learn about their epic 15,000 km cross-continental migration. The book also explains how such journeys are possible, with the inclusion of plant migrations (wild cherries, violets, and coconuts) an unexpected, interesting addition.
If you have a young vegan or would-be vegan in the family, this book is a must-have. It contains dozens of recipes for tasty year-round cooking and eating, from drinks and snacks to main courses and puddings, all proof that you can have a delicious and varied diet totally meat, dairy and egg-free. The recipes are easy to follow and accompanied by full colour photos but it’s more than just a cookbook. Niki Webster slips in tips and advice too on keeping healthy and ensuring that you get enough iron and vitamins and includes a really useful FAQ section at the end as well as shopping lists and seasonal food charts. Her tone is just right, friendly, practical but inspiring. Keep a copy in the kitchen!
Exhilaratingly informative, compellingly personal, and outright inspirational (thanks to its practical “try this” activities and “over to you” calls to action), De Nichols’ Art of Protest is a must-read compendium for a new generation of change-makers. Exploring the history and transformative impact of protest art through the compelling lens of the author’s own activism experiences, this book about making a difference sure does things differently itself. Clearly framed in the context of why art matters to social movements, readers are presented with an overview of the history of protest art (from the anti-WWI activism of early-twentieth-century Dadaists, through the women’s suffrage movement, to current BLM actions), before embarking on a dazzling visual journey through key facets of design. We learn about symbolism, typography, the power and meanings of colours, and the role of tech, including memes, social media filters, and videos. With a feature on young contemporary climate activists, and tonnes of easy-to-follow suggestions for how to make your own change in the world, the book’s aims are perfectly précised by its final page: “Start making. Start creating the change that’s needed for a better world”.
Frozen Mountain is an interactive adventure game book that teaches essential survival skills to up-and-coming explorers. The story unfolds following an emergency landing high in a remote mountain region and from there the reader has to make a series of life and death decisions to make it home. Every possible danger comes your way as you deal with frostbite, bear attacks, blizzards, raging torrents and more. Not to mention the basic techniques for finding food, water and not getting even more lost than you already are! Frozen Mountain is absolutely packed with expert advice and tips for surviving in the wilderness. My favourite was finding out how to make a snow hole to stay warm and safe during a storm - you never know when that might come in handy! Apart from the cool tips, what this book really teaches is the relationship between risk and luck, and how making good decisions is the most important thing when out in the mountains. Page after page there’s a threat to your life. You're provided with information to make a decision and then your decision is tested by the spinner which comes with the book - a reminder that in the end there is always an element of luck in any dangerous situation. Frozen Mountain is great fun and beautifully illustrated in the style of a classic adventure book, and it even includes snippets from terrifying real-life survival stories to fire the imagination! After all, an adventure wouldn’t be an adventure without the possibility you may not return…
Who doesn’t wonder how their brain works? This book gives you a guided tour of the human brain (and some animal ones), explaining in brightly illustrated pages what the brain does, and how, demonstrating functions of the cerebellum, the brainstem, the cerebrum and the different lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital). The information is clearly presented via perfectly pitched text and illustration and is thoroughly engaging, accessible and stimulating. There are tests to try out yourself and ingenious representations of new scientific understanding of the brain. It finishes with a look into the future and what might be next for neuroscience and, having read this, lots of youngsters will be eager to keep learning more.
October 2021 Book of the Month | It’s a big world out there and when you’re little it’s difficult to know where to start. The World Book makes it easy. It's a fantastic resource for young minds to get their heads around the customs, symbols, histories and … well, identities of the 199 countries explored within. The Contents page is sub-titled “Where do you want to go today?”, and that’s just what you do - pick a country, head to the page, and within ten minutes you’ve very easily built an accurate picture of a faraway place that one day you may just be lucky enough to visit. You couldn’t give a book such a big title as this without making it a substantial thing to hold. The World Book doesn’t disappoint and is reminiscent of some of the hefty picture atlases that used to lie around my house when I was a kid. There is a little mapping but more helpful are the abundant colourful illustrations that portray each nation. Dig a little deeper and the detailed short paragraphs that zoom in on particular facts and figures provide substance to the uniqueness of the place. The book is very accessible and punchy and I particularly liked its sense of equality and the way in which it is not dominated by the bigger nations. Sierra Leone, for example, enjoys as much space as Greece, and there is as much to learn about Canada as there is the USA. The World Book is a triumph in how it neatly and simply explains the world - even to an oldie like me! It seems there are still countries out there I’ve never even heard of...
This eye-catching book is a compendium of inspiring women who dared to stand up for what mattered to them and to do things that those around them said they shouldn’t or couldn’t. In words and pictures - equally lively and informative – Kate Pankhurst tells fifty true-life stories of artists, writers, doctors, scientists, champions and campaigners. To put them in chronological order (and a handy timeline at the end does just that), she features great women from Hatshepsut, Egyptian Pharoah in 1479 BCE, to NASA scientist Katherine Johnson, who died just last year. Each has a double page to themselves, cleverly laid out to be visually appealing while delivering large amounts of information. Bringing together Pankhurst’s individual volumes but adding new faces too, this is a must read for every young person, and will fascinate their parents too.
There are so many beautiful and interesting books about Earth, that you tend to think you have seen all the pictures, watched all the programmes, read all the books, but when you read this book, you will realise you haven’t even touched the sides. It is a wonderfully eye-popping book. Separated into different areas of the earth, and then sub divided into areas of interest, beauty, and fascination. It sparks an interest, like a free sample into a new experience. On each page there is just enough information to tempt you into finding out more through further reading and research, which as a learning tool in itself, is invaluable. The photography is superb, clear, vibrant and detailed. The whole book is packed with so much wonder. It makes you remember what a wonderful and partly unknown planet we live on, but also that however much we feel we have travelled, most of us haven’t really touched the surface. It made me feel rather ignorant of the world around me. The photography really is quite beautiful and it amazing to think that in over 200 pages, there is only a small boat on p59 and a lone house on p175. The anonymous photographers should be commended.
