More fantastic facts and awesome illustrations for "Moon Week" with the truly brilliant "Balloon to the Moon" by Gill Arbuthnott and Chris Nielsen (Big Picture Press)

We feel very lucky to be inundated with a whole smorgasbord of glorious space exploration books ahead of the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing.

Many books take different approaches to presenting information about how humans went from getting off the ground for the first time in balloons and gliders, to the first aeroplanes and then eventually the first unmanned and manned rockets.

"Balloon to the Moon" by Gill Arbuthnott and Chris Nielsen is the perfect example of how to present factual information in a thoroughly immersive and totally engaging way.

Taking a deliciously retro-style approach with the presentation and artwork, which looks like awesome space propaganda art from the 1950s (as well as the sort of art you'd see adorning space toys of the same era), Chris's glorious illustrations fit Gill's brilliant research and writing absolutely perfectly, summing up what it must have felt like for humankind at the time the space race kicked off proper.

But this is more than just a book about space, it's filled with so many brilliant little facts that fit around our own quest to leave our planet behind, either within the confines of our own atmosphere, or out there amongst the stars.

Let's take a look at some of the amazing pages inside...

What's it like being in freefall? Ever been in a lift that descends rapidly?

The facts and explanations are really thorough and easy to understand, but this is a book that works for quite a wide age range, most kids will find themselves absolutely enthralled by it.

Rockets go BOOM!

You'll be hard pressed to find a better space facts book ahead of the 50th Anniversary. This is really superb.

Houston, the Eagle has Landed! 

C really loved this one, very easy to get into and very difficult to put down! It also reminded me of the sort of non fiction books I used to love as a kid and that's a good thing, honestly.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A thorough, brilliantly presented and gloriously illustrated book that chronicles our quest to fly amongst the stars.

"Balloon to the Moon" by Gill Arbuthnott and Chris Nielsen is out now, published by Big Picture Press (kindly supplied for review).