Booklist

Allan Ahlberg
The Boyhood of Burglar Bill
Puffin (192 pages) 9780141321424
The writer of so many marvellous stories and poetry collections, including Friendly Matches all about football, gives us a boyhood autobiography. Growing up in the 1950s might appear to be more attractive as a subject for grown-ups rather than for youngsters, but Allan Ahlberg is to be totally trusted as a writer for the young. There's a lovely, lightly humorous touch throughout as he tells of his, and the all-pervasive, football mania. Here's a voice for all who dream of triumphs but never even get picked for the team. The development of an unlikely team of lads thrown together for the local Coronation Cup in 1953 is at the core of these memoirs. This delightful book has a superb cover picture of a scratch game of footie played in a street entirely free from any parked vehicles!

Philip Ardagh
Philip Ardagh's Absolutely Useless Lists: For Absolutely Every Day of the Year
Macmillan (517 pages) 9780230700505
Here's a pleasingly fat and chunky tome crammed full of facts and with a title that's absolutely correct - except for the 'useless' bit. Many readers get absorbed by just dipping into odds and ends of knowledge and gain far more by having something unexpected catch at their interest than by sticking to curriculum or other prescribed information. The book will also please those who like bite-sized snippets usually with enough to inform. There is an entry for every day and many entries have some vague connection with the specific day or date they are entered under, though a great many more have none. February 14th has a list of 'love you's' in 65 different languages, some of which must be phonetically spelt and a few probably sound rude said aloud, but October 31st has 'Twenty things to do when lost in the middle of a desert'. It is an endlessly openable book and an enterprising variation on the very popular fact-file style.

Herbie Brennan
Parallel Worlds
Faber (196 pages) 9780571223169
Boys will enthuse over the weird and wonderful information, legendary anecdotes and stories here. The book is standard paperback sized and the writer adopts an easy style with continuity and a steady flow so that reading is a pleasure. To give it all an even more friendly appearance, the text is broken up by inserted elements, such as those with the unspoken 'must read' heading of 'Forbidden Facts'. There are unexplained disappearances of both individuals and large groups, folk-tale elements that could be based on truth, stories of odd experiments - in fact lots from the margins between scientific knowledge and that in the minds inside anorak hoods.

Gillian Clements
The Picture History of Great Buildings
Frances Lincoln (62 pages) 9781845074883
Inside the covers of this somewhat mundanely titled book is a real treasure. It is crammed tightly full with pictures of the world's greatest buildings and each is load-bearing enough to have information all over the place without the page appearing unbalanced or crowded in any way. The order is chronological from the needs of migratory peoples through all the ages of civilisation, with some specific focus on buildings like the Taj Mahal and Sydney Opera House. The drawings are so full of detail that they will be the cause of much exploratory poring over, and it is all so brilliantly designed that the subject becomes fascinating even for anyone only vaguely interested enough to open the book.

Nicola Davies illustrated by Neal Layton
What's Eating You?: Parasites, the Inside Story
Walker (61 pages) 9781406300956
Yuckiness is a great selling point and this subject is adorned by the extremely funny sketches of Neal Layton to add to the inviting format. Looking like a smaller than usual picture book, this is a book to inform, and indeed to teach, through sheer entertaining enterprise. It is organised so that things can be gloated at and groaned over at random; or a progressive reading reveals an enormous amount about sources of human discomfort and disabling invasive illnesses. The overall effect is strangely encouraging and does cause real concern for people who live without any benefit of normal everyday cleanliness opportunities.

Martin Jenkins and Vicky White
Ape
Walker (44 pages) 9781406303766
This is an astonishingly beautiful picture book. The large, very finely executed paintings and drawings by Vicky White dominate the pages, which have text varying from a simple one-word species name - Orang-Utan, Chimp, Banobo, Gorilla - to smaller script for notes of information. It is a magnificent presentation concluding with a couple of pages about the fifth, most common form of great ape, 'You … or me', followed by a distribution map and a brief index. What the book might lack in detailed facts it certainly makes up for in creating great empathy with the subjects through awakening wonder.

Nick Arnold illustrated by Dave Smith in the series style of Tony De Saulles
Horrible Science Handbooks: Beastly Body Experiments
Scholastic (96 pages) 9781407103594
Each snippet of information about body parts and functions is accompanied by a practical, small-scale, something-to-do suggestion. So Skin Moisture has an experiment including the need for a hand - 'You should find one attached to your wrist' - with the extra 'Terrible Tip': 'it helps if the hand is not the one you write with'. That's the style but, as always, there is a lot here disguised in among such throwaway humour.

The 'Horribles'
The various series all with 'Horrible' in the title are incredibly popular paperback books crowded with jokey drawings and packed with information always giving the nasty, gory, disastrous or cruelly unfortunate prominence. The 'Horrible Histories' started it all and seem to go on and on finding new punning titles and themes, but all these books contain a great deal of information presented in an obviously successful, attractive format. New for 2008 are some 96-page variants named 'Handbooks' with wipeable bendy plastic covers and in full colour.

Other titles in the 'Horribles' series:
Horrible Histories Handbooks: The Horrible History of the World: in Blood-Curdling Colour
Horrible Histories Handbooks: Villains!
Horrible Geography Handbooks: Wild Animals: in Earth-Shattering Colour
Horrible Geography: The Horrible Geography of the World

Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown
Horrible History Handbooks: The Horrible History of the World: in Blood-Curdling Colour
Scholastic (96 pages) 9781407103501
and
Horrible History Handbooks: Villains!
Scholastic (96 pages) 9781407103051
The text is denser than in the science book above but that is no deterrent to fans of the books and, yes, the whole history of the world is here, condensed of course. 'Horrible Hunters' has early upright humanoids in Europe, Africa and Australia, and the final chapter, 'Wicked Wars', is a summary of the last century. Each chapter of Villains! features a theme with a focus on torture, terror, and just, as well as unjust, desserts. 'Wicked Women' opens with Cleopatra and friends and closes with Ranavalona I of Madagascar and her imaginative methods of dispatching. There is a section on 'How to Succeed in Villainy' in between each chapter for the ambitious.

The 'Horribles'
The various series all with 'Horrible' in the title are incredibly popular paperback books crowded with jokey drawings and packed with information always giving the nasty, gory, disastrous or cruelly unfortunate prominence. The 'Horrible Histories' started it all and seem to go on and on finding new punning titles and themes, but all these books contain a great deal of information presented in an obviously successful, attractive format. New for 2008 are some 96-page variants named 'Handbooks' with wipeable bendy plastic covers and in full colour.

Other titles in the 'Horribles' series:
Horrible Science Handbooks Beastly Body Science
Horrible Geography Handbooks: Wild Animals: in Earth-Shattering Colour
Horrible Geography: The Horrible Geography of the World

Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown
Horrible History Handbooks: Villains!
Scholastic (96 pages) 9781407103051

Reviewed with Horrible History Handbooks: The Horrible History of the World: in Blood-Curdling Colour

Anita Ganeri illustrated by Mike Phillips
Horrible Geography Handbook: Wild Animals: in Earth Shattering Colour
Scholastic (96 pages) 9781407103389
While this is more natural life than geography, it is worldwide in coverage. Chapter headings like 'A Short Shark Shock' and 'Crunch Time for Crocs' make the priorities clear. 'Crocs', for example, starts off with the variations in those from the Nile, the saltwater varieties, and the Pacific and American alligators, and goes on to true or false facts, attacks, hunting and hints on survival, just in case.

The 'Horribles'
The various series all with 'Horrible' in the title are incredibly popular paperback books crowded with jokey drawings and packed with information always giving the nasty, gory, disastrous or cruelly unfortunate prominence. The 'Horrible Histories' started it all and seem to go on and on finding new punning titles and themes, but all these books contain a great deal of information presented in an obviously successful, attractive format. New for 2008 are some 96-page variants named 'Handbooks' with wipeable bendy plastic covers and in full colour.

Other titles in the 'Horribles' series:
Horrible Science Handbooks: Beastly Body Science
Horrible Histories Handbooks: The Horrible History of the World: in Blood-Curdling Colour
Horrible Histories Handbooks: Villains!
Horrible Geography: The Horrible Geography of the World

Anita Ganeri illustrated by Mike Phillips
Horrible Geography: The Horrible Geography of the World
Scholastic (96 pages) 9780439977180
This is a larger format, heavier, full-colour hardback book with chapter headings often related to previous individual paperbacks: 'Violent Volcanoes', 'Odious Oceans', and so on. Every continent, major regional landmass types, larger cities, and exploration and discovery are all featured in a marvel of selection and condensation. The main wildlife and individual indigenous peoples are also incorporated into each section. This is an awesome mass of well organised but still entertaining stuff, and even more facts creep into the 'Teacher Teaser' boxed paragraphs with out-of-the-way knowledge to show off.

The 'Horribles'
The various series all with 'Horrible' in the title are incredibly popular paperback books crowded with jokey drawings and packed with information always giving the nasty, gory, disastrous or cruelly unfortunate prominence. The 'Horrible Histories' started it all and seem to go on and on finding new punning titles and themes, but all these books contain a great deal of information presented in an obviously successful, attractive format. New for 2008 are some 96-page variants named 'Handbooks' with wipeable bendy plastic covers and in full colour.

Other titles in the 'Horribles' series:
Horrible Science Handbooks: Beastly Body Science
Horrible Histories Handbooks: The Horrible History of the World: in Blood-Curdling Colour
Horrible Histories Handbooks: Villains!
Horrible Geography Handbooks: Wild Animals: in Earth-Shattering Colour

Paul Kieve
Hocus Pocus: A Tale of Magnificent Magicians and Their Amazing Feats
Bloomsbury (304 pages) 9780747590897
The author is an avid collector and hoarder of all things related to stage magic. After a performance one night he goes home feeling exhilarated with his own prowess when the figures of great magicians begin to step out of the posters on his walls. This fantasy opening leads into a wonderful mass of information about magicians and their particular tricks, crafts and illusionist skills. There are instructional segments on how to replicate some of these and also how to develop exercises in baffling others with magical feats. Altogether this is an original and wholly captivating book, with the bonus for many of an introduction by the Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe.

Satoshi Kitamura
Stone Age Boy
Walker (32 pages) 9781406303353
Satoshi is a distinctive creator of picture books and here turns his attention to a narrative form of information book. When a boy trips he falls right into the Stone Age where he meets the people and sees the ways in which they live. In a mix of book forms and comic-strip styles he sees the mainstay occupations of hunting and fishing, the domestic details of cooking and living and, the source of the inspiration for the book, how they paint on cave walls. As an attack by a very annoyed bear is launched he wakes up back in his real time. The book deals with a well-liked topic - caves and home-made dens being a crucial part of play - in a novel and inviting manner.

Dick King-Smith illustrated by Anita Jeram
All Pigs Are Beautiful
Walker (32 pages + audio CD) 9781406311952
Some of the brilliant 'Nature Story-Book' series have recently been republished in paperback with the addition of an audio CD attached to a front cover flap. This example tells a lot about pigs in a narrative manner that is both very informative and also totally revealing of the author's own obsession with them. The CD has a Perfect Piggy song, some facts, and the story as read by Stephen Tompkinson and in a 'read along while you listen' form as well. Another in the same series has the surprisingly beautiful artwork of Mike Bostock for the Information Book Award-winner Think of An Eel by Karen Wallace.

Kate Lennard illustrated by Eivind Gulliksen
Little Genius: Bones
Hutchinson (32 pages) 9780091893453
Fun reading and information that is accurate and covers a fascinating subject make for a terrific combination. Bright pictures and paragraphs of fact focus on the 'hard bits' inside each of us. There are comparisons with the skeletons of other species, a diagrammatic bone map with lifting flaps to reveal the names of the parts, and some healthy eating advice as a conclusion. All this comes under the guiding eye of the round-faced character Little Genius - an amiable lesson indeed.

Peter Macinnis
It's True! You Eat Poison Every Day
Allen and Unwin (86 pages) 9781741146264
There are a whole lot of readily available 'It's True' books in paperback from this Australian publisher. While the style and title are attention grabbing the content is both scientifically accurate and intriguing. Besides the common foods which turn lethal in the wrong quantities there are the really lethal poisons, and information about those who've used them on others, together with more savoury advice on possible project experiments and investigations. To be precise: good fun and good fact.

Mick Manning and Brita Granström
Dino-Dinners
Frances Lincoln/The Natural History Museum (32 pages) 9781845076894
This duo are accomplished at creating cleverly integrated books of pictures and texts of non-fiction. In this one there are clear pictures of dinosaurs and each has a first-hand style introduction to tell of its own characteristics. As the title says, the main attention is on what each creature ate so the meat-eaters are suitably fiercesome and even some of the vegetarians don't look at all cuddly.

Mick Manning and Brita Granström
My Body Book
Watts (24 pages + extra half) 9780749663803
The half pages are fold-out flaps used very effectively to show the workings of different organs. Clear drawings and clear writing cover sections on senses, muscles, the skeleton, the head - together with the brain, blood, lungs and skin. Where it fits there will be a diagram, such as the cross-section of the digestive system, and all told this is an excellent example of a book to inform the youngest in school.

Jan Mark illustrated by Richard Holland
The Museum Book
Walker (53 pages) 9781844287499
'Wonderful and eccentric', says the back cover and this blurb is quite exact. Collage or montage illustrations with an amalgam of objects in the style of old engravings are placed throughout the book. Just a few pages in and the top half of the double pages has a steam engine, four poster bed, totem pole, Viking ship, pillars and more - there's even one of those thingummyjigs! The text positively dances around with the multiplicity of objects a museum might display from one room, one theme or period, to the next. Some things are backed up with more information, others are revisited and extended in later pages, with everything fully indulging in the wonders of the treasures and riches on view. The story of one museum, the Ashmolean, emerges but the application is to any and every collection on public display. There's lots to absorb and engross the attention here and this book will certainly appeal to the mindset that wallows in the sort of odd, quirky, eccentric appearance of this book.

Amanda Mitchison
Who Was... Isambard Kingdom Brunel?: The Iron Man
Short Books (120 pages) 9781904977599
The publisher produces exactly what it says on the spine of the book, especially commissioned brief coverage with a particular emphasis on biographies. This example shows evidence of excellent research and is very well written too. The dramatic events of Brunel's life and extraordinary achievements amid the drive and the optimism of the Victorian Age are covered in a lively, rather than an incident-listing, style. A good book indeed, reading as a strong narrative but essentially non-fiction.

Chris Oxlade
Mighty Motorbike
Watts (32 pages) 9780749667504
This book is in what has come to be accepted as a 'standard' information book format of a slim hardback and part of a series. This is just one from 'Amazing Machines', which also deals with cars, ships, aircraft, trucks and trains. It is broken down into the usual double-page spread organisation with each pair of pages devoted to one model. There are bright, clearly printed, photos and bite-sized pieces of text, as well as boxed-in 'fast-facts' snippets. It is a book for enthusiasts to devour and revisit, and for a small group to linger over, browse, point out salient details and chat. A good bet for any boys and for those whose needs might be described as special.

Richard Platt illustrated by David Parkins
Egyptian Diary: The Journal of Nakht
Walker (64 pages) 9781406301724
The 'diary' of a boy who lives at the time of King Hatshepsut tells of both everyday life at the time and of his particular adventures and journeys. The sites of antiquity he visits are alive and thrumming with activity. His eyes take in a hippo being hunted and a tomb being robbed and the narrative words are enhanced by stunning illustrations with nicely humorous touches. A very enjoyable and informative book for all ages in an award-winning format.

Richard Platt
Knowledge: Forensics
Kingfisher (65 pages) 9780753412176
A winning subject this, with police and crime shows almost a permanent fixture on TV, but the book stays exciting while avoiding sensationalism and horrific gore. The chapters each have double-page spreads to deal with particular topics. Good photos provide visual information, and the text has summaries to repeat things and also as ready reference. There is a guide to some internet sites and all in all this is an efficient insight into an increasingly important aspect of police procedures.

Kjartan Poskitt and Philip Reeve
Pantsacadabra!
Scholastic (222 pages) 9781407104652
A whole book of 'magic' tricks involving pants has to be a hit - even if performance as such is not anticipated. A great deal of specific instruction is given in an easily accessible manner and with lots of simply organised diagrams and attractive drawings. The illustrator is one and the same as the award-winning writer - some people are horribly talented. Some of the pages are in graphic-comic layout and some are words alone. A joking introduction about a little known conjuror, The Great Gusset, leads in to forty sections with titles like 'A Flash in the Pants', 'The Knicker Nicker', 'The Bride of Pantenstein' and more. Let's hope there's a Poskitt/Reeve road-show, or even school visits. How about a volunteer, one of the teachers perhaps?

Aidan Potts
Uneversaurus
David Fickling Books (44 pages) 9780385608923
There is a lot available about dinosaurs but this book takes a look at what we do not know but only make informed guesses about. Conjecture about how dinosaurs might have looked is based on what we know of animals today, together with the bones and skeletons uncovered around the world. So the chameleon may be an indicator of colourings and those creatures with natural camouflage are valid indicators as well. This is a high level of scientific enquiry made both accessible and enjoyable through the clever approach and dramatic but witty pictures. In picture-book form but with much to interest older readers this book could be valued throughout a primary school.

Tony Robinson illustrated by Mike Phillips
The Worst Children's Jobs in History
Macmillan (104 pages) 9780330442862
The ebullient presenter of a TV series full of revolting tasks and even more revolting possibilities about how some jobs were undertaken has produced this tie-in book. It does stand alone and is very successful in exploring one of those byways of history that is quite enlightening about many periods and reinforces areas of the curriculum in a nicely nasty manner. The illustrations are recognisably in the awful-factual mode as they are by Mike Phillips of 'Horrible Geography' picturing. There are 'what happened when' timelines to put each chapter into context and the irresistible, behind-the-hands-sniggering subjects will lead to a surprising amount of information being absorbed.

Stewart Ross
Greed, Seeds and Slavery
Eden Project Books (144 pages) 9781905811083
The bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British legislation in 2007 has been marked with a number of books. This paperback has a dozen narrative stories on a range of people and events with some connection with slavery. Included is the life of a slave, Oludah Equiano, taken from Benin to the West Indies in 1750; Thomas Fellows who was enslaved for 23 years; and, of course, the great orator, William Wilberforce. So in effect these are twelve short stories all relating true tales, brief biographies written in an interesting, easily readable way.

Rob Shone
Triceratops: Three Horned Dinosaur (Dino Stories)
A and C Black (32 pages) 9780713686074
A dramatic cover illustration of bared teeth and imminent battle leads in to a book with graphic-comic style frames and wording giving information through realistic storytelling. The aim is a reading age of around 7 with a much broader, and older, appeal in subject matter and treatment. This is one of a series of four, Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor are the others. All have clearly organised pages giving additional information, photos of fossil remains, and sections on research into dinosaur characteristics, as well as the picture-strip focus.

Marcia Williams
Archie's War
Walker (40 pages) 9781406304275
Occasionally a book of this quality comes along that deserves every superlative I can summon up and write about it. The picture-strip style of Marcia Williams has served Dickens, Shakespeare and The Canterbury Tales, among other good retellings. Here she has created the diary of a boy, Archie, living during the years of the 1914 - 18 war. It is full of little, telling details: letters home from the front are included to fold out and read, with messages about what might get past the censor. The boy himself puts in doodles and dire warnings about the secrecy of some bits - as young diarists are prone to do - and reveals his own daily life, school and leisure as well as the effects of the war on families and domestic welfare. Major events from the newspapers are recorded, such as the loss of the Lusitania and, eventually, Victory Day. All is in the subdued colouring of authentic period print and of aged hand-crayoning. This is a beauty: an extraordinarily fine book indeed.

Robert Winston
It's Elementary: Putting the Crackle into Chemistry
Dorling Kindersley (96 pages) 9781405318570
The publisher's grand design acumen with lots of clear pictures standing out well and with varied type-faces makes for a super presentation. The style is unabashed enthusiasm and provides lots and lots of facts with great appeal for those who really relish such detail. The focus is on the chemical elements and the basic matter that everything consists of. There are amazing facts about what makes people, and what makes your pet dog; lots of questions are asked and answered, and the stories of the discoverers of the elements of the periodic table are covered as well. The book serves as a lucky-dip read for opening at any page to see what's there, as a book to enjoy chapter by chapter, and as a reference tool also.