It's National Non-Fiction Month and you know what that means don't you? It means that our absolute go-to for non-fiction greatness has a whole stack of new titles arriving, and this was the first out of the blocks for November.
"The Usborne Big Book of Rockets and Spacecraft" is by a doyen of all things space-tastic. Louie Stowell, author of many brilliant non-fic titles for Usborne has a passion for space exploration and science so it's fantastic to see this latest book pouring out fact after fact about the various ways humans (and animals) have travelled into space.
"Big Book" is no exaggeration either. This book is BIG and it also extends various page layouts with gigantic fold-out sections.
Naturally, Charlotte was instantly drawn to a fab layout of the International Space Station. Fans of the blog will know that when we wrote about Louie's other fab space book recently (The awesome "The Astronaut's Handbook" which also made our Book of the Week slot), Charlotte raved about the ISS and is now equally excited to read about the Chinese plans for a space station that will be getting off the ground in the 2020s.
Gabriele's illustrations are fab here, with lots of spacecraft old and new ranging from the multi-stage rockets of yore, right up to date with our current space transport methods and far into the future with some great pics of spacecraft yet to be (Including Charlotte's fave, an "Interstellar"-like Faster-than-light ship with a huge habitat ring).
Space is inspirational for children, and this book exquisitely details how we got there, how we get there now and how we might get there and explore space and our surrounding planets in more detail in the future. You owe it to yourself as a space cadet to go and pick up a copy as soon as you can!
Charlotte's Favourite Bit - More fab facts about the ISS, and some great spaceship designs coming in the future
Daddy's favourite bit - Rapping with Louie about the book and imagining a tiny little paper cut out of Mark Watney sitting on the surface of Mars in the first human settlements there :)
(Kindly sent to us for review by Usborne Children's Books)
"The Usborne Big Book of Rockets and Spacecraft"
Written by Louie Stowell
Illustrated by Gabriele Antonini
Published by Usborne Books
Publication Date (Paperback): 1st November 2015