Age 10+

Dorling Kindersley has long been known for publishing lavishly illustrated non-fiction, in which the text is brief, and the captions encapsulate facts. Now DK has broken new ground by signing up Peter Ackroyd to write a series of children’s books. The first two are The Beginning, which chronicles the history of the universe from the big bang 14 billion years ago to the global dominance of homo sapiens a mere 13,000 years ago, and Escape from Earth, the story of the space race, a tale that is notable for the rapidity (less than a century) with which human invention progressed from aeroplanes to machines that can fly 4,000m km to Neptune. Both volumes are riveting. They are still illuminatingly embellished at every step, but develop ideas as well as communicating information. The stories are engaging enough to read aloud, are rich in metaphor and will inspire interest and curiosity about the past and the future. These are not just sound-bite snacks for short attention spans, but unfolding feasts that leave you with a sense of wonder that, in the mind-boggling span of the universe, you are there at all to read them.

VOYAGES THROUGH TIME: The Beginning and Escape from Earth by Peter Ackroyd

(Dorling Kindersley £14.99 each)

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