Children's interest in natural history is on the up and up, and that's such fantastic news. New generations of kids are growing up knowing more about animals than ever before, and of course it's driving a brilliant sector of non-fiction to keep up with their hungry demands for new and innovative book titles covering the animal kingdom.
Yuval Zommer's awesome "The Big Book of Beasts" (produced in conjunction with natural historian Barbara Taylor) ticks off lots of our boxes straight away. Firstly, it's a HUGE book packed with tons of pages, the sort of book that just begs to be read while sprawled out on the floor.
Next, it packs a ton of facts in on species that don't just cover all the usual animals that children may be bored to tears with, and also makes the subject matter reading feel more like fun than school learning.
Did you know, for instance, that Honey Badgers employ a "spy in the sky" to help them scout out bees nests? The bird and the badger then divide up the spoils between them?
Did you know that Male Lions don't just have their superb manes to show off for females? The manes also make an excellent neck protector in fights with competing males.
So many species have their secrets uncovered, and this is as brilliant as Yuval and Barbara's "The Big Book of Bugs" which we reviewed favourably last year.
We would love to see more, in fact can we make a sneaky suggestion that there's a severe gap in the market for interesting children's books about birds. So perhaps "The Big Book of Birds" could follow these two one day?
Charlotte's best bit: Learning all about her favourite animal species in a fun way (why oh why does she love lizards and frogs so much?)
Daddy's favourite bit: A fabulous and huge book full of wonders, all the secrets of the animal kingdom uncovered in a fun and engaging way. Brilliant!
(Kindly supplied for review)
"The Big Book of Beasts" by Yuval Zommer and Barbara Taylor was released on 16th March 2017, published by Thames and Hudson