Newest Children's Non-Fiction Reviews
Children's non-fiction
Deadly Peril and How To Avoid It by Tracey Turner
Have you ever wondered what to do if you're bitten by blue-ringed octopus, or if you find yourself up to your neck in quicksand? It's a dangerous world out there and Tracey Turner has all the information that young explorers, daredevils and fact-hounds need to know. Full review...
Philip Ardagh's Book of Howlers, Blunders and Random Mistakery by Philip Ardagh
There's nought so queer as folk. From the idiot who broke into a car without realising his name and date of birth were clearly seen on his tattoo on CCTV, to the people who ordered someone to paint clothes on all the people in the Sistine Chapel - before others came along who decided the original had been better, and the people who dismissed The Beatles as never likely to make a name for themselves. We have long been a race of idiots. Full review...
The Comic Strip History of Space by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner treated us to a Comic Strip History of the World, and have now turned their attention to space. They explain to children everything from the origins of the universe, to what ancient civilisations thought of the stars, through astronomers discovering the truth about planets, right up to current space missions. Full review...
Bad Kids: the Worst-Behaved Children in History by Tony Robinson
I'm starting to wonder about the type of person who would write such a horrible and terrifying book for children; it's as confusing as trying to work out an age category for this book. Bad Kids is a gruesome look through history using the ways children were punished through the ages as a central core. It runs right through history from ancient Iraq, where you could get your fingers chopped off for hitting your parents (they only recently abolished that one) to the modern day and the use of ASBOs. Full review...
Ripley's Believe It or Not 2010 by Robert Leroy Ripley
If you're looking for a book which is going to keep a child (or some adults!) happy for hours on end then look no further. So long as you don't mind the groans of (mock) disgust, screams of horror and constantly being asked to look at (another) picture or listen as more is read to you then you should be absolutely fine. Following hot on the heels of last year's success Ripley's Believe It or Not 2010 is packed full of bizarre facts (some of which you might appreciate knowing – others you will definitely wish you didn't), fiends and freaks. Full review...
The Bumper Book of Bravery by Charlie Norton
The Bumper Book of Bravery looks at bravery in all its forms - from people in wars, to explorers enduring amazing hardships, through spies and revolutionaries, by way of sportsmen and women, even to brave animals. Full review...
Dinosaurs (Henry's House) by Philip Ardagh and Mike Gordon
Henry's House is extraordinary: it's full of fossils, footprints, and even real dinosaurs. Jaggers the caretaker and Mr Boffin show him around, explaining all about dinosaurs, as Henry sees for himself just what amazing creatures they were, and learns the differences between the various types. Full review...
The Dangerous Book of Heroes by Conn Iggulden and David Iggulden
For most of us (well, for me certainly) the word 'hero' summons an image of capes, spandex and garish primary colours. Conn and David Iggulden have written a book about the other kind – the every day heroes from history, who achieve incredible things without the aid of superpowers.
From household names like Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill, to lesser known people, like Aphra Behn and Hereward the Wake, The Dangerous Book of Heroes covers a comprehensive range of characters from the history of the British Empire. From campaigners for political change, brilliant battle strategists to daring explorers, each and every one of the people in this book lived brilliant lives and changed the world forever. Full review...
Ripping Things to Do by Jane Brocket
Right from the very moment I opened the envelope this book was delivered in, I had the distinct feeling this would be a real gem of a book, and how right I was. Though, initially, I was reminded of the Iggulden brothers' Dangerous Book for Boys series, this book has a very different ethos, even though the subject matter overlaps somewhat unavoidably making it bear comparison. Full review...
Peas! by Andy Cullen and Simon Rickerty
The farmer sows the seed from which Penelope and Pete Pea grow. They're picked, packed, delivered, bought, cooked and eaten, and we follow them on every step of their journey. Full review...
What's Eating You? by Nicola Davies and Neal Layton
Did you know that there are more than 430 types of parasites that can live on humans? Are you scratching? Good! Now you know what it was like for me reading What's Eating You? It's a fantastically detailed introduction to parasites - on humans and other animals - that any science-loving child will love. Full review...
The Smash! Smash! Truck by Aidan Potts
The Smash! Smash! Truck looks at the process of recycling glass, taking in a brief look at the Big Bang, atoms and the water cycle, to explain why recycling is a good idea. Full review...
Will Jellyfish Rule the World? by Leo Hickman
Have you ever wondered why it rains so much in Britain? What a glacier and a canary have in common? Or how lizards once managed to sunbathe in Antarctica? Green expert Leo Hickman is here to answer all these questions and more in his new book, Will Jellyfish Rule the World? Full review...
The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin Busby and John Busby
When my dad dies, his body will go to the Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, though I suspect they are mostly interested in his head... His was in an interesting case - the lower half of his jaw was removed when he was shot in the head with a shotgun. His tongue was torn in half, his teeth and gums blown away, leaving a bit of bone that was once his chin connected with dangling flesh at the front of his face. Full review...
Can I Come Home, Please? by Phil Robins
Using the sound archives of the Imperial War Museum and other primary sources, this affecting volume gives an overview of the progress of Nazism as seen through the eyes of children in different parts of Europe. The simplicity of the language used in the transcribed interviews means it is accessible to children from Y6, yet remains useful to GCSE students as a succinct, linear timeline of WW2. Full review...
Who Am I?: The Family Tree Explorer by Anthony Adolph
A fascination with family history seems more than just a passing fad: for many it's a hobby approaching an obsession and in a mobile (both geographically and socially) and globalised society, people unable to answer a 'where we are all going' question find security and identity in pursuing an answer to 'where do I come from?' Full review...
Bob's Great Green Book (Bob the Builder) by Various
Bob the Builder and his crew of machines live in the glorious Sunflower Valley and enjoy their work. However, as well as building new developments, they like to look after the world around them. Their motto is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and they apply this to everything that they do. This book aims to introduce the youngest of children to the benefits of recycling, how to recycle and look after the world around them using characters that are familiar and in a way that teaches, not preaches. Full review...
Weighing It Up by Ali Valenzuela
Although never having had an eating disorder myself, I have been interested in them since I was young. I was a competitive gymnast and that is a world where eating disorders do creep in. Now I'm a mother of three teenage daughters, I worry about the subject from a whole new angle, especially as one of them is a size 6-8 and idolises those super-skinny celebrities. Full review...
Planet In Peril by Anita Ganeri and Mike Phillips
Saving the Earth is the latest bandwagon upon which authors seem determined to jump with children's authors at the forefront of the charge. I've seen quite a few which were little more than a watered-down version of the sort of information which would be given to an adult and I can imagine that a lot of children would feel patronised. This Horrible Geography Handbook – Planet in Peril is a breath of fresh air. Well, apart, that is, from when the loo gets a little too well used. Full review...
The Blackest Hole in Space by Penny Little and Vincent Vigla
Charlie and his dad build a rocket, then Charlie and Doggo head off into space, where they're sucked into a black hole. They have a bit of a look around (as one does in a black hole, apparently), then head off home for their tea. Full review...
Moon: Science, History, and Mystery by Stewart Ross
By now we should be living in colonies on Mars and still using computers that take up a whole room: futurologists have a talent for getting things spectacularly wrong, but their predictions express the human ability to dream and transcend its limitations and conditions: we dream of reaching for the stars – and humans actually walked on the Moon. It's hard to believe that first landing happened forty years ago! Full review...
10 Things I Can Do To Help My World by Melanie Walsh
It's never to early to start making a difference. Melanie Walsh's book introduces young children to simple things they can do to change the world, from switching lights off, to turning off the taps when brushing your teeth. What's more, the book is made from 100% recycled materials, making buying it an 11th thing you can do to help your world. Full review...
Dragonmazia by Rolf Heimann
Dragonmazia is packed to the rafters with detailed, engaging, varied and fascinating mazes. There's a strong dragon theme throughout, without ever getting samey: there are medieval dragons, Oriental dragons, and a few cuddly dragons too. Each page generally has one big maze, with a few smaller mazes or puzzles dotted around it. It doesn't have an overall narrative, but there's plenty of detail to pore over beyond the mazes themselves. Full review...
Teach Your Granny To Text by We Are What We Do
I loved this book. I loved the positive tone of this book. It is just so packed full of great, interactive ideas for living a better life, that I even passed it onto to my household's resident politician. He agreed that there were lots of ideas in it that capture the spirit of these new-austerity times, and took a note of a few for his next council meeting. It's true! Full review...
The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
The Comic Strip History of the World is, as you might expect, a comic strip history of the world. It covers everything from the Big Bang to the present day, with each period of history summed up in a page or two. It's very much a potted history in the vein of the Horrible Histories series and 1066 and All That. It's a fantastic book, both as a light fun read, and as a brief education into everything that has been before. Full review...
Spyology by Dugald Steer
Agent K – also known as Spencer Blake – set out to write this manual of Spyology, otherwise known as Tradecraft, in the course of his last mission, the deadly Operation CODEX. Obviously he saved the civilised world (again) but he apparently perished during the operation. No one was more surprised than the head of Special Intelligence Service (P.O. Box 850, London) when the manual which I now have in front of me turned up at the headquarters of MI6 in an unmarked envelope several months after Agent K disappeared. The original plan was to use it to train new recruits using various challenges based on Operation CODEX. It's recently become available to the public under the fifty year rule. Full review...
Voyage Across The Cosmos by Giles Sparrow
In the course of a year I see some wonderful books but this must rank as one of the most stunning that I've seen for a long time. Billed as a journey to the edge of space and time the reader is off on a journey of a hundred and thirty billion trillion kilometres from earth. On the way you'll see some breathtaking sights and get an idea of the unbelievable scale of the cosmos. Full review...
Abc 3d by Marion Bataille
Wow. This is an ABC book with a difference. The publisher's notes say it's "astoundingly beautiful" and it is. Marion Bataille's careful, ingenious alphabet pops up from the pages to amaze and entrance all who look. From A, a proud pyramid on the inside cover, to Z, standing on its side at the end, each letter of our alphabet has a personality of its own. E morphs into F, V mirrors itself and becomes W, and U is a cascade of parabolas. Full review...
Hocus Pocus by Paul Kieve
Hocus Pocus is part biography of the greatest magicians of all time, part fictional tale of the author meeting them as they come alive from his posters, and part magic instruction manual. All the parts foster an interest in magic, and act as an inspiration to the next generation of magicians. Full review...
What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
As its title suggests, the book is about what people do all day. Since different people all do different things, the book covers a lot of topics. The first section looks at Busy Town itself along the high street. This book truly shines with some of the best examples of Scarry's illustrations, as we see the town above ground, and below ground in intricate detail. We see the men digging tunnels and the underground pipes, street cleaners at work, and peeks into the bank and various shops as well as the fire department, doctor, dentist, and so on. All are clearly labelled and much fun is to be had after reading the narrative, looking at and discussing all the marvellous detail. As the book progresses, we get to see what Mummy does all day at home, what the farmer does, the door to door salesman, the policeman, the fireman, the blacksmith, the postmen, the ferry workers, and so on. Full review...
The Big Field: A Teachers' Guide by Anne Morddel
This teachers' guide is designed to accompany The Big Field: A Child's Year Under the Southern Cross by Anne Morddel. The inspiration for the book came about when the author worked as a librarian at a school in the state of Paranã in Brazil. In trying to find a book about the seasons (and how the natural world around them changed) for children in the five to eleven age group she realised that none existed for the southern hemisphere. She set out to remedy the situation. Full review...
The Big Field: A Child's Year Under the Southern Cross by Anne Morddel
My Mama and Papa work hard in the city and they're always busy. That's why we live on Granny's farm, Chloe and Baby and me.
We never know the name, or gender of the narrator, but it's a gentle, sensitive voice which guides us through the seasons. The farm – Southern Cross - has been in the family for at least three generations, as Granny's grandfather burned all the trees in the big field and planted coffee and soybeans. Her father did the same but Granny says that she keeps forgetting to plough – but she says it with a smile. She has something else in mind for the field. Full review...
Moi and Marie Antoinette by Lynn Cullen and Amy Young
Marie Antoinette and her pug dog, Sebastien, had an idyllic life in her native Austria. She was the fifteenth child of the Empress, who, in the traditions of the time, used her children to make marriages which would strengthen her own position. Marie Antoinette was told at the age of thirteen that she was to marry a Prince – the grandson of the King of France. Sebastien narrates this charming tale of Marie Antoinette's journey to France, her marriage, life at Versailles and the birth of her daughter Therese. It stops mercifully short of her execution. Full review...
A Picture History of Great Discoveries by Clarke Hutton
As soon as I opened this book I was taken back in time by about half a century. In a frieze around my classroom walls were lithographs by Clarke Hutton and they're all to be founds here in this book first published in 1954. Unusually it's the illustrator who is given credit for the book with Mabel George's text only being acknowledged on the title page of the book. Full review...
The Human Machine by Richard Walker
In my youth (yes, alright – but it was quite some time ago) books for children about the human body were written in text-book style with some parts being obviously well-thumbed and others largely ignored other than by those who would be going on to do A level biology. As a result many people of my generation are ignorant about how their body really works – or only learn about it when something goes wrong. The Human Machine: An Owner's Guide to the Body is a welcome look at the subject written in a chatty and informal style and in a format familiar to the target age group of eight plus. Full review...
Outstanding Olympics by Clive Gifford
With 2008 being the year of the Beijing Olympics an authoritative book for children on the Olympic movement is opportune. The fact this one is written by Clive Gifford – sports fanatic and award-winning children's writer – is a real bonus. Gifford has a chatty style which pulls you in from page one. Full review...
Prince Caspian: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Ernie Malik
Who would have thought that Prague in the Czech Republic could so convincingly masquerade as 1940s London, complete with authentic Routemaster buses and the lions of Trafalgar Square? This sleight of hand and many more are revealed in the Official Movie Companion to the forthcoming CS Lewis adaptation, Prince Caspian. Full review...
101 Things You Wish You'd Invented and Some You Wish No One Had by Richard Horne and Tracey Turner
Gearing up for the long school summer holidays yet? If not, you probably should be. It always pays to plan in advance. Bored children aren't a pretty sight. You could certainly prepare yourself well by taking a look at the latest in Bloomsbury's 101 Things To Do series. This one is Things You Wish You'd Invented and it entertained me for a good few hours. Full review...
The Ultimate Survival Guide For Boys by Mike Flynn
A potentially interesting book about how to survive in the wilderness or your back garden, which unfortunately misses the mark by not being enough of one thing or the other. It's worth a read, but you wouldn't take it on a dangerous camping trip to the back garden. Full review...
Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human Endurance by Georgina Phillips
Everything from Shackleton to Ellen MacArthur, by way of the Japanese word for fried rice-field grasshopper, and 32 hour long after dinner speeches. Ouch! contains fascinating trivia on every page that children will love to repeat back to you at length. Full review...
If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today by Dougal Dixon
As a child and even during my daughter's childhood, dinosaurs had not really gripped the public consciousness in the way that they have done over the last decade or so. This was useful in reviewing If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today as it meant that I approached the book with interest and curiosity but without being burdened by a great deal of prior knowledge.
I was impressed. Full review...
