The Usborne Art Book about Colour by Rosie Dickins, Ashok Roy and Desideria Guicciardini (Usborne Books)

Usborne's peerless art series continues with a book that offers a glimpse into the history of colour as well as the history of art. Children are like hungry sponges when it comes to finding out about the past and also how things work. Something as 'basic' as colour is something that children take for granted from an early age, as soon as they start breaking out the crayons and the poster paints - but where do those wonderful colours come from - in fact where did they come from before paint arrived in handy plastic squeezy bottles?

Usborne's fabulous "The Usborne Art Book About Colour" provides answers with a series of brilliant illustrations, informative text and fascinating facts. There are pages about the history of pigments, of the various things that early artists would use to create paints, and comes bang up to date with essential pages detailing colour theory. All of course punctuated by some scintillating artwork and expertise gained from collaborating with experts at The National Gallery.

As a lowly art student, I was told by my course tutor that I had the worst grasp of colour theory of any of her students (to be fair to her, she was not wrong, I am completely hopeless!) After an hour or two with this book, and with Charlotte propped on my knee reading alongside, we both felt like we'd learned an awful lot and had fun doing so. That's a perfect summary of how Usborne books can make art fun and engaging, and books like this truly are inspiring the next generation of little artists to look deeper into the fascinating world of art.

Charlotte's best bit: Slightly over-obsessed with the fact that some pigments were derived from dung!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fantastic book imparting valuable knowledge about colour theory, art history and the history of pigments with superb presentation and fascinating facts. Brilliant!