ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd February 2017 - "Knowledge Encyclopaedia - Space!" by Dorling Kindersley

Our Book of the Week this week may have been out for quite a while but it's a truly stunning non-fiction title that deserves another look...
Dorling Kindersley's "Knowledge Encyclopaedia" range really is the benchmark for non-fiction children's books. Big, thick and weighty just like the DK books my wife and I grew up with, they're packed full of amazing information and fantastic photo plates and illustrations.

We have many DK books at home but the "Knowledge Encyclopaedia" range have been updated and we're discovering them all over again thanks to Charlotte's keen interest in a wide variety of subjects.

But it's space that holds her interest the most at the moment, so we're always on the lookout for brilliant Space books. Her nanny bought her this one for Christmas (buying Charlotte books is always a gutsy move but paid off beautifully in this particular case) and we've all been thumbing through, mostly because this book covers several very important aspects of Space.

Kicking off with a deep exploration of the Solar System, we learn about the planets themselves, where they are, what they're made of and the many layers that have been formed around their cores.

The sun. Not a great place for a holiday vacation unless you've got some serious heatproofing!

Starting with the Sun of course, then moving outwards, each double-page spread details many fascinating facts about the planets (for example, the number of moons each one has - some up to 72 known moons and many more undiscovered).

A Mars a day helps you learn while you play!

One of our favourite spreads was the one for Mars - which goes into great detail about this now arrid planet and the tantalising possibility that it may have once teemed with running water, and perhaps even life. We're completely addicted to learning all about the discoveries of the Mars Rover so this is definitely our fave section of the book.

The book then moves out even further into space with more facts and figures about the stars and constellations, other galaxies and exoplanets before settling down to talk about our own space exploration efforts - and of course a huge spread all about the International Space Station.

The ISS, one of the most incredible achievements in space exploration and science

Again this is a huge area of interest to Charlotte (and to me) as she's followed all the details of the recent mission to the ISS by Tim Peake.

As we've already said, this book sets the benchmark really high for space books, absolutely amazingly detailed and something that is going to last Charlotte for years - almost as long as our own DK titles!

Charlotte's best bit: The details of the various probes and space missions out into the galaxy, the Mars Rover and of course the fabulously detailed section on the ISS.

Daddy's favourite bit: We've seen an awful lot of space books and we're delighted to find that this not only ends up being one of the best of the bunch, but even features tons of facts we'd yet to learn. Gloriously detailed, beautifully illustrated throughout and a real keepsake for years to come.

(Self purchased)