Age 8+

This father-daughter collaboration tells a lively, accessible story about a schoolboy who travels through the universe, transported by a super-powerful computer that can compress billions of years into minutes. George, drawn in Garry Parsons’s friendly illustrations to look like Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, lives in a green family so suspicious of technology they have no television, and light the house with candles. But a scientist neighbour and his eccentric daughter introduce George to the wonders of physics, leading to the defeat of a power-hungry villain and George’s triumph in the school science competition. Interspersed with colour pages of photographs and fact sheets about the planets, the story occasionally teeters on the edge of being a lecture, but mostly it is like a Dr Who adventure, inspiring curiosity and amazement. It makes a case for the relevance and fascination of physics, and for the importance of scientists and eco-warriors working together to save the planet. With a happy circularity, the plot depends on a recent discovery: Hawking Radiation, the leaking of particles out of black holes until they destroy themselves.

Buy GEORGE’S SECRET KEY TO THE UNIVERSE by Lucy and Stephen Hawking
(Doubleday £12.99)

Times Recommends

• The Sunday Times 100 best holiday reads
• What will we be reading this summer: the booksellers predict
• Literary festivals: a survivor’s guide