We love non-fiction books that cover unfamiliar ground, and in "The History of Prehistory" by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom, this dynamic book-creating duo travel back as far as time itself to dig into the very origins of our earth.

Starting with the way the earth formed, and the continents began to divide, through to when the first primitive lifeforms began to emerge from swampy seas, to evolve into all manner of fascinating creatures, Mick and Brita bring us further up to date with an adventure that is truly 4 billion years in the making.

With two awesome kids to guide us through on our journey, we'll learn more about the world we live in as it was way way before us hairless apes crawled down out of the trees for the first time.

Mick and Brita also effortlessly cover eco issues as well as showing some of the unique life that has existed on our planet throughout time.

This is a real treat of a book, stretching back into the distant past with a truly unique perspective on prehistory that isn't just your average Dinosaur book.

"The History of Prehistory" by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom is out now, published by Otter-Barry Books (kindly supplied for review). 

Here's a fabulous story that's a little bit scary and spooky at first...

Here's a rather fabulous book that may well tap into some well-known defaults in children's books, but to great effect and for a very good cause...

Imagine a whole library tucked inside a single book. You don't need to be a Time-Lord with some Tardis trickery for this one, just a pair of hugely talented book folk!

This was always going to be a tough sell to me, this book. I have a horrible confession to make you see. Aside from a passing love of King Lear and a tiny smidge of awe for "The Tempest", I'm definitely not a Shakespeare fan. BUT Charlotte is and we're both history nuts, which is quite fortunate because the masterful author-illustrator team of Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom have blown our minds with their unique and passionate way of looking at historical times, places and figures (check out their fabulous "The Story of Britain" to see what we mean).

So can an old Shakespeare-cynic be won over by this gorgeous tome? You bet! Mick and Brita take us from the very early life of Will Shakespeare (I tried to do the whole "Shakespeare died on the day he was born" thing with Charlotte, to no avail).

Will's inquisitive mind and thirst for knowledge was tempered at an early age by a mischievous streak (caught red handed poaching and was very lucky not to lose his hands - or his head - in those days!) but always with an eye on the stage. First, with ambitions to become an actor and later to become the playwright we all know (and some of us love!)

We found ourselves completely immersed and drawn into this book. Mick and Brita weave Shakespeare's legend well, and the book is gloriously illustrated with scenes from his life and from Britain at the time of the bard. Liberally dosed with quotes from Shakespeare's best loved works, and with potted synopses of some of his most brilliant plays and sonnets, this is absolutely THE best place to start for youngsters who are just starting out on the path of discovery of Britain's most famous wordsmith.

If I'd had a book like this when I was younger, I'd have found a love for Shakespeare a lot earlier. You know what, miracles really can happen after all because I'm itching to go and re-read our dusty old collected works through again now to see what I've been missing out on all these years.


Charlotte's best bit: Learning all about Ariel and Caliban from The Tempest, and giggling at Shakespeare's grand speeches before dispatching poor calves in his father's glovemaking business

Daddy's Favourite bit: An utterly fascinating and absorbing look at William Shakespeare's life, locations, loves and of course his greatest works. This is utterly fantastic!

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

If there's one thing regular followers of this blog will already know about us, it's that we LOVE getting outdoors come rain or shine. Following our adventures through my wife's awesome Can I Walk, Mummy? days-out blog, you'll be able to follow us as we explore the countryside around us - and further afield when we get the chance too.

So Mick and Brita's new book is an absolute corker for us, giving us even more inspirational ideas to make our days out - or even playing in the back garden - loads more fun.

The book covers a multitude of subjects from den building (our favourite thing to do when we trek out to our local woodlands), camping, making an outdoor feast, tracking and signs and of course a good dose of identifying the various flora and fauna we find on our nature rambles.

We firmly believe that spending weekends outdoors hugely benefits Charlotte's development and her awareness of the world around her (and I guess we're hugely fortunate that we have wonderful places to visit around us!)

Thankfully the book does cater for a bit of urban nature spotting too, so don't worry if you're a city-dweller - you'll be surprised what can be found even on your own doorstep.

A fabulous resource to dip into again and again to give you some great ideas for exploring, making and doing outside! Pick it up because spring is definitely on the way, so there are lots of excuses for getting outside into the fresh air!

Charlotte's best bit: Some fabulous ideas to improve her den-building skills (Best tip: Don't let Daddy help!)

Daddy's Favourite bit: A fabulous outdoorsy resource that we'll definitely be dipping into again and again over the coming months (and for years to come, too!)

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

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The Story of Britain by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

As our wonderful regular blog readers will know, Charlotte is a real history nut and cannot get enough of the amazing crop of children's non-fiction titles that focus on history, particularly the history of Britain and history that Charlotte can more readily identify with.

"The Story of Britain" by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom is the sort of huge weighty hardback that we absolutely adore. Stretching back in time to when the British Isles first became an actual island, cut off from mainland Europe as sea levels rose, the book takes us through each era in turn, describing how our ancestors may have hunted mammoths, constructed the first tools out of stone then later copper and bronze, through the Roman Invasion, then the Norman Invasion and right through to the 20th Century and times of war.

The double-page panel spreads for each era are absolutely stuffed to the brim with characters, facts and figures from each period of history - introducing some of the pivotal figures in British history from royalty to celebrity, from politician to peasant. We particularly liked the fact that women of history are front and centre in the book quite often, including Mary Shelley (who Charlotte instantly spotted and got VERY excited about! One of these days I'm going to have to let her read Frankenstein I guess!)

The end of the book gets even better, as Mick and Brita come up with a fantastic list of inventions and folk that truly reflect our diverse nation (so utterly awesome to see a shout out to Benjamin Zephaniah! What an awesome dude he is!) I also have to admit to being rather fond of the back-of-the-book quote that says firmly "History doesn't have to be horrible" - Amen to that!

An utterly absorbing and brilliant history book for your younglings.

Charlotte's best bit: Loving Mary Shelley, and the female spy!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Chock full of amazing content, detailed and fantastic - and once again proof positive that history doesn't need to be squishy, yucky or gross to be appealing to kids!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Franklin Watts Publishing)