The Story of Life by Catherine Barr, Steve Williams and Amy Husband (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

When is the right time to introduce your children to non-fiction books? When indeed - we opt for 'as early as possible' because as much as children love stories, they're always in awe of the world around them too.
Dealing with the tricky subject of evolution and how the world around us has changed, and is constantly changing might sound like a fairly hefty and meaty subject for the very young, but handled correctly - as in this utterly brilliant book by Catherine Barr and Steve Williams, with gorgeous illustrations by Amy Husband, children's natural curious streak will inevitably set them up for a lifelong love of acquiring knowledge through books.

"The Story of Life" begins back when the earth was shrouded in darkness, when volcanic ash and lava carved out our landscape long before life began. As the first microscopic lifeforms began to appear, the book takes us on a fascinating journey through earth's history showing how plants and animals adapted and evolved right across the earth's surface.

Children will love exploring this book - again one of those gorgeous non-fiction titles that just begs to be laid out on the floor so you can sprawl in front of it to explore it further. Amy's illustrations might seem quite simple but they draw you in, and there are lots of fun animal characters to engage with as the book shows us tiny life springing up and becoming huge hulking dinosaurs, before settling down into the species we share our world with today (oh and us, of course!)

For a long time now we've been seeing dramatic strides and improvements in children's non fiction titles, and it's really fantastic to see a title aimed at the very young that will inevitably become a keepsake, something for them to explore for years to come. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Charlotte's best bit: The arrival of the (very naughty and quite cheeky) apes!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A really thorough and wonderfully immersive introduction to the evolution of our planet, a book that will completely capture the imagination and inquisitiveness of little ones from cover to cover.

(Kindly sent to us for review by Frances Lincoln Children's Books)