Celebrating National Non-Fiction Day today with our favourite "go-to" for Non-Fiction Children's Books - The mighty Usborne Publishing!

"How Your Body Works" from Usborne (with fabulous illustrations by Colin King). 

We don't cover nearly enough children's non-fiction books on the blog (we want to, believe me we do) so it's been absolutely fantastic to be given the opportunity to look at three absolute corkers from Usborne, to help celebrate National Non-Fiction Day.

Usborne books were my favourites when my wife and I were children, always guaranteed to have fascinating content, brilliant illustrations and so much longevity that the one or two that we managed to keep in good condition to pass on to Charlotte now sit proudly alongside some of Usborne's fabulous reprints of their classic "Know How" books and others. 

Usborne's "How Your Body Works" is a typical example of the sheer quality - and importantly the level of fun that can go into a beautifully presented and gorgeously put together non-fiction book. 

Presenting a fairly hefty and complicated subject in a way that children Charlotte's age (or even younger) can understand, without talking down to them is part and parcel of what you can expect from Usborne's range, and it's definitely in evidence here. We loved the clear and fun diagrams to accompany explanations of how our bodies work (or don't work!), a fascinating and engaging subject for curious kids like our little girl and a timely reprint of a really brilliant book we loved as kids! 

The most awesome Lift the Flap book ever? "Questions and Answers About Your Body"

In a similar vein (oh god, pun definitely intended!) there's also "Lift the Flap - Questions and Answers About Your Body").  Lift the flap books are a format that Usborne do so brilliantly (we've previously also reviewed the fantastic Usborne "Look Inside Your Body" by Louie Stowell and Katie Leake). In "Questions and Answers About Your Body" children (who have a zillion and one questions) can look through the book, and really dig into their anatomy revealing all the wonderful (and sometimes quite gross) nuggets of knowledge about their physiology. Charlotte enjoyed finding out fascinating facts like where tears come from and (inevitably) how food turns into poo. Ew!

You may have already picked up that we're huge space nerds here at ReadItDaddy, and to top off our look at Usborne's range, we couldn't possibly do without a look into the inky depths of space, courtesy of this corker. 

Usborne "Look Inside Space" with 60 flaps to lift! The universe awaits!

Again, masterfully presented with over 60 flaps to lift, Usborne's fabulous "Look Inside Space" dishes up facts and figures thick and fast about the cosmos, and of the three books we took a look at for Non Fiction Day, this was by far our favourite. Sumptuously illustrated, fact-filled, flap-filled and fantastic, it epitomises Usborne's brilliant range of children's non-fiction books, and their ongoing generation-spanning commitment to producing the best curiosity-inspiring books on the block. 

Happy National Non Fiction Day Usborne! You truly rock our world!