Some reliable nonfiction series

We’ve had weeks of illness recently, and the regular programme of study has been suspended for some time. There’s no point trying to shepherd children through French, grammar, or indeed French grammar when their heads feel like cotton wool.

But one thing we could manage was reading aloud, all snuggled up on the sofa. And there are a few nonfiction series which I find myself coming back to again and again. They’re reliably informative, but also reliably enjoyable. They probably aren’t new to you, but there might be new titles in the series that are:

Usborne See Inside…

I think we have 19 of these books, not including the many we have borrowed from libraries. They are practically a complete curriculum. Usborne recommends them from age 6, but 5 year olds would be fine too. My daughter is nearly 9 and still gets plenty of enjoyment (and education) from them. There’s a huge subject range: castles, dinosaurs, food, the human body, ancient China, space, famous buildings…

Recent additions to the series include:

• See Inside Genes and DNA (7+)

• See Inside The Future (7+)

• Wild Places, and Artificial Intelligence, coming in 2025.

Also take a look at the Look Inside series, which I think is broadly for slightly younger children (5+ rather than 6+, but it doesn’t make much difference). There’s an equally enticing range of subjects: Mummies and Pyramids, The World of Bees, The Stone Age, How Computers Work… New titles coming soon include Bug World, Farm, and Future Energy.

A page from the Genes and DNA book.

Who Was…?

My two have been enjoying these since they were about 5. Recently we’ve been exploring 16th/17th century science, so we read Leonardo, Galileo, and Newton. They loved being able to see Galileo’s Law of the Pendulum for themselves. You can watch a video online of an astronaut dropping a hammer and a feather on the moon to disprove Aristotle’s idea that heavy objects fall faster than light objects, proving Galileo right. You can also watch a video of Brian Cox demonstrating Newton’s experiment with light and prisms.

Other favourite titles in our family are Ernest Shackleton, Harriet Tubman, Salem Witch Trials, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, King Tut… Other options: Jane Austen, Henry VIII, The Tuskegee Airmen. Apparently there are over 250 titles, so go and explore!

Curious About Crocodiles

My daughter recently loved Brainy About Bears so much that we have also borrowed Curious About Crocodiles and Mad About Monkeys. Crazy About Cats is next. There’s also Sharks, Frogs, Octopuses, and Beetles. Lots and lots of very quotable facts. We ended up getting out the tape measure to see just how far a jaguar can jump, and just how long a tiger really is. The only thing I don’t love is that there are no photos of the animals, just gorgeous but very stylised illustrations. But my children don’t care and they can see photos elsewhere. Amazon says 6-8.

National Geographic Everything…

We have the National Geographic Dino-pedia and Rock-opedia, and they’re great but very detailed. So far I have had to read them aloud, and only small parts that are relevant to what we’re studying. But the Everything… series is much more suited to children reading to themselves. My daughter has enjoyed Big Cats and Space, and is now begging me to get her Rocks and Minerals. My son wants Sharks, Insects, and Dinosaurs. There are lots of pictures, the text is in short blocks, and the books are full of amazing facts. Other titles include Egypt, weather, WW1, money, dogs, volcanoes…

They’re not available in any of our libraries, but they mostly cost only a few pounds secondhand.

Murderous Maths

I’ve mentioned this once before, so apologies to dedicated readers who never miss a post. But in case you missed it, we are having the best time working through the puzzles in Murderous Maths, and I recently discovered there’s a whole series. So far we’ve only used Professor Fiendish’s Diabolical Brainbenders (recommended 10+, but my nearly 9 and 7 year olds are having fun with it even if it’s a bit of a team effort). It’s a great way to think creatively about maths and take a break from workbooks that drill you on the same thing over and over. Drilling’s important, but so is learning to choose what approach to take and think outside the box. It’s fun and funny, and children who like comic books will love it.

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A Chat Thread about gifts

I started a chat today to crowdsource great gift ideas from likeminded readers (I was having a small panic about an upcoming birthday). I think I’ll put the suggestions in a separate post but if you want to take a look and add any of your own ideas, here’s the link, I think:

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