We've already mentioned Usborne Publishing in our #Booky100Keepers and now it's the turn of the flip side of the mighty Non-Fiction coin, Dorling Kindersley.

Again these were books that both my wife and I remember from our childhoods and books that we were delighted to revisit and rediscover alongside C as her interests grew.

DK's books have the highest reputation possible when it comes to non-fiction, with hugely talented teams around the world contributing to their incredible range.

Most kids start out with something like the awesome "DK Children's Encyclopedia" - a title that's regularly updated to encompass all the new developments in science and technology, and our understanding of the world around us. It really is "the book that explains everything" and as close as a kid can get to having their own Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

DK's natural history books have been a mainstay on the blog, coupling mesmerising illustration and photography (including some often quite grisly 'cutaway' illustrations to show how different animals 'work')

Modern DK books like "Smithsonian Explanatorium of Nature" see the publisher working in conjunction with museums and natural history organisations to showcase the amazing life on our planet, with innovative presentation and glorious CG artwork to lure kids away from screens and back into books as a valuable source of reference and knowledge to compliment projects they're working on at school and at home.

Our huge selection of keepers inevitably features many books about space and again these showcase the DK house style of ramping up the visually spectacular illustrations to a level where every single time you crack open one of their books you'll find something new to look at.

Books like "Knowledge Encyclopedia of Space!" are exciting, jam-packed with facts and details, and of course an absolute must for a space-obsessed family like us.

This book lays our solar system bare, showing planets from the inside out, our amazing sun, and the incredible science and engineering feats that have enabled us to look beyond our own world out into the inky cosmos, to see what's out there and to one day hopefully explore further afield than the moon.

DK's range also encompasses a lot of fictional stuff too, and covers many of our hobbies and interests. DK's Lego books are utterly amazing, detailing the history of the company and a ton of amazing statistics about the rise and rise of everyone's favourite brick-building toy.

Do you actually know anyone who DOESN'T like Lego?

They also produce some of the best source books for the Star Wars Universe. Their "Visual Dictionary" books showing off all the designs, characters, technology and locations for the new Star Wars Skywalker trilogy have been bought more or less on day of release, and are great for art nerds who love drawing their own concept art - or fans of the movies who want to get right down to the nitty gritty of what the inside of a Tie Fighter looks like, or how Darth Vader managed to survive being barbecued on Geonosis.

Stand by for a colossal collection of DK links (and a LOT of "Book of the Week" wins for DK) from the blog over the years: 

Out Today - the very latest edition of the fantastic DK Children's Encyclopedia (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 3rd November 2017 - "Explanatorium of Nature" by Dorling Kindersley / DK Smithsonian (Dorling Kindersley)

Knowledge Encyclopaedia: ANIMAL! (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 30th November 2018: "Timelines of Everything" (Dorling Kindsersley Publishing)

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

"Science you can Eat - Putting what we eat under the Microscope" by Stefan Gates (Dorling Kindersley)

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Animals (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 16th June 2017 - "How to be a Scientist" by Steve Mould (Dorling Kindersley)

First Science Encyclopaedia (Dorling Kindersley)

Children's Illustrated Thesaurus (Dorling Kindersley Publishing)

ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th August 2016 - "Home Lab: Exciting Experiments for Budding Scientists" by Robert Winston (Dorling Kindersley Publishing)

Out today! "Explorers: Amazing Tales of the Worlds Greatest Adventurers" by Nellie Huang and Jessamy Hawke (Dorling Kindersley)

Booky Advent Calendar 2017 Day 6 - "Crafty Gifts" by Jane Bull (Dorling Kindersley)

ReaditDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 27th October 2017 - "Star Wars Coding Projects" by Jon Woodcock and Kiki Prottsman (Dorling Kindersley)

13 1/2 Incredible Things You Need To Know About Everything (Dorling Kindersley)

The world as you've never seen it before in the fantastic "Where on Earth?" Atlas (Dorling Kindersley)

Star Wars - The Force Awakens - Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo (Dorling Kindersley)

Star Wars Made Easy: A Beginner's Guide to a Galaxy Far Far Away by Christian Blauvelt (Dorling Kindersley)

The Spy Book by Laura Buller, Joe Fullman, Ben Gilliland and Jim Pipe (Dorling Kindersley)

"Through the Animal Kingdom" by Derek Harvey and Charlotte Pepper (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 12th May 2017 - "Star Wars Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide" compiled by Pablo Hidalgo (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 20th March 2020: "Lego: Absolutely everything you need to know" (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 15th November 2019: "Inventor Lab" with a foreword by Dr Lucy Rogers (Dorling Kindersley)

"The Wonders of Nature" by Ben Hoare (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's Book of the Week - Week Ending 1st March 2019: "Science is Magic" by Steve Mould (Dorling Kindersley)

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 10th November 2017 - "Star Wars: Absolutely Everything you Need to Know" by Adam Bray, Cole Horton and Michael Kogge (Dorling Kindersley)

Lego Friends Brickmaster - Treasure Hunt in Heartlake City (Dorling Kindersley)

We are absolute Lego nerds on the blog, and though this book is a few years old, it was rather a lovely present to receive from my wonderful Mother in Law (who REALLY knows how to pick presents out for me).

"Lego: Absolutely Everything you Need to Know" is a luxurious deep dive into the world of those utterly addictive plastic bricks.

If you, like me, find yourself still playing with Lego as an adult, you'll absolutely love the approach this book takes - digging back in time to the history of the Lego company, and also taking a look at the various innovations, the different sets, and of course a whole ton of amazing anecdotes surrounding this brilliant building block - and all its weird and wonderful variants.

Did you know, for example, that Lego are the largest tyre manufacturer on the planet? They make more tyres for Lego vehicles than anyone else.

Did you also know that Lego kits have genuinely been into space?

The history of the Lego company, from wooden toys to plastic bricks and beyond

The presentation and layout of each spread is absolutely brilliant, and we loved spotting kits that we'd had as kids - as well as some that are still being proudly displayed here at ReadItDaddy Towers.

Lego is 'wheely' great!

All the stats, facts and clever 'in jokes' that get worked into the products are just amazing, and this big thick tome will keep your (ahem) youngsters occupied for ages.

SPACESHIIIIIIIIP!

Utterly, utterly awesome stuff.

Sum this book up in a sentence: The ideal gift for your Lego-loving loved ones, packed full of amazing detail and a ton of jaw-dropping facts about the humble bricks.

"Lego: Absolutely Everything you need to Know" by Dorling Kindersley is out now (bought as a birthday present, not supplied for review). 

Our first book of the week this week will bring out the inner science geek in you and your kids, with a series of truly fantastic fully functioning maker projects for all ages and abilities (with quite a few requiring adult supervision, so roll up your sleeves and get stuck in!)

"Inventor Lab" with a foreword by Dr Lucy Rogers, is a superb and weighty book filled with a ton of projects designed to not only tax your brainpower, but show you something of how real-life gadgets and machines work and function.

Inside the book you'll find everything from cool noisemakers, fan-powered electronic cars, and even a remote controlled snake!

The book begins by showing you some of the most common components and tools in a maker kit, most of which can be obtained fairly cheaply (in fact some time ago we picked up a simple electronics kit for less than a tenner that had most of the electronic components listed in this book - add to that some essential tools and you'll be well on your way to making some of these).

A simple motor-powered breadboard car ready to speed off across your floor!

As we said at the top of the review, it's best to get an adult to help with some of these - as soldering and using glue guns is probably something left to responsible grown-ups, but kids will definitely enjoy helping out and they will most definitely enjoy playing with the makes once they're done.

Making a matchbox microphone

Above all, each make and experiment shows how a real-world gadget's inner workings function, a great way to teach kids about electronics and resistors, capacitors, transistors and other electronic goodies.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A truly brilliant 'makes' books for advanced science geeks, each of the projects is brilliantly designed to teach kids how real-world gadgets work.

"Inventor Lab" with a foreword by Dr Lucy Rogers, is out now published by Dorling Kindersley (kindly supplied for review). 

As we've come to expect from Dorling Kindersley, this is a fantastic natural history book that takes us right to the doorsteps of the amazing animal species we share a planet with.

"Through the Animal Kingdom" by Derek Harvey and Charlotte Pepper cleverly combines paintings and photographs in an absorbing and involving way, showing us the habitats of different animals, some living in the most harsh environments imaginable.

Join in on a journey that spans every corner of our planet.

Ahead of those "Back to School" blues there's still time to indulge in a spot of luxurious book love, and in particular this gorgeous tome filled with the most amazing things from across our planet.

"The Wonders of Nature" by Ben Hoare is a sumptuous collection of animals, plants, minerals and other fabulous things, beautifully captured in fine detail with a series of gorgeous colour plates, and Ben's expert descriptions and facts about each object.

There are over 100 remarkable items from the natural world, from orchids to opals and lichens to lizards, everyone will find something to be captivated by. 

Oooh, two of our favourite things combined in a brilliantly presented and seriously absorbing new book from DK? How could we resist!

Food and Science meet with a pop, and a fizz in "Science you can Eat" by Stefan Gates.

Stefan is a brilliant host in this amusing and utterly fascinating look at our food, and the way our bodies work with it, combined with a ton of awesome recipes and experiments to keep you and your little ones busy in the long summer hols.

We busied ourselves getting right down to the nitty gritty of trying out some of the experiments in this book. Spit and custard? OK We did skip that one, as it sounded a little bit too gross - but learning how our saliva works on our food to make it easier to digest was actually one of the more interesting bits of this book.

We also found out why popcorn pops, why Space Dust fizzes and explodes on our tongues, and - er - why baked beans make your trousers trumpet!

Let's have a look inside this fabulous book!

Our tongues are amazing. Not just for poking out at your teacher or politicians, they're amazingly sensitive to a whole range of flavours and tastes

Stefan's easy style of writing completely captures children's imaginations, and science experiments you can do at home with just a few simple things really make this a complete winner of a book when the kids plaintively cry "We're bored! Find us something to do!"

Yeah we always cry when we slice an onion because we think about all their little onion brothers and sisters missing them. SOB!

The real science behind some of the amazing facts in the book is introduced in a kid-friendly but not dumbed-down way, so you'll come away with a whole gamut of knowledge about food and how we process it. Did you know, for instance, that there really is iron in cornflakes? There's a great experiment in this book to prove it to you!

We all scream for ice cream!! Yum!

As you'd expect from DK, this is a beautifully presented and visually impressive book. Wear a chef's hat AND a lab coat for the proper effect while digging into a ton of amazing experiments that will wow and stun in equal measure.

Sum this book up in a sentence: The perfect book for the long summer hols, round up your pet adults and get busy with a ton of fabulous food-based experiments to tantalise your tastebuds and stimulate your brain!

"Science you can Eat" by Stefan Gates is out now, published by Dorling Kindersley (kindly supplied for review). 

Our Book of the Week this week once again collects together a stunning slice of science - but this time with a pinch or two of prestidigitation thrown in...

"Science is Magic" by Steve Mould is for all the kids like us who could never quite do fancy card tricks, or make rabbits appear out of top hats.

With the appliance of science, Steve shows us how to perform some simple experiments at home that can truly bring science to life, and make it seem like magic (well, technically it IS magic but you'll know what we mean once you dig into this fantastic book).

From the author of "How to be a Scientist" comes a new collection of simple experiments and mesmerising science facts that show you exactly why the tricks contained in the book work in the way that they do.

Stunningly illustrated and really simple to follow for a range of ages, this is once again brilliant stuff from Steve.

Magical lights in the sky? Science has an answer for that...

We rather love Steve's sense of humour that creeps into the book and makes science even more fun (as if it wasn't already the most fun thing anyway!)

A simple magic trick using nothing but your own fingers and a bit of muscle power!

Stun your friends (not literally, there are no tricks in the book like that, trust us!) and astound your parents with a set of tricks you can try out on them that should work every time!

OK, definitely do NOT try this one at home!

Sum this book up in a sentence: An astounding, astonishing collection of amazing science facts, experiments and explanations for kids who love science and want to impress the socks off family and friends, courtesy of magician Steve Mould!

"Science is Magic" by Steve Mould is out on 7th March 2019, published by Dorling Kindersley (kindly supplied for review). 

Wow, our second book of the week is an absolute MAMMOTH book that captures the history of our planet from Big Bang to Big Badaboom!

This is the time of year where AT LAST we get to spend some time at home, and if there's one thing we love doing at this time of year, it's making things...!

Here's a rather attractive and innovative book from Dorling Kindersley, part bedtime story but also a really cool way to learn about the moon phases...

Our Second Picture Book of the Week is a huge vault of knowledge, locked up in book form - ready to amaze and dazzle you! It's the "Explanatorium of Nature" from Dorling Kindersley!

Our second book of the week this week is a fantastic coding journey set in a galaxy far, far away. Get your geek on with the amazing "Star Wars Coding Projects" from Dorling Kindersley...

The DK range has always been fantastic for a wide range of age groups, and has always provided stunningly presented and engaging books to really draw in and stimulate kid's curiosities...

Oooh ooh oooh, can you feel The Force? Sort out your Stormtroopers from your Sarlaacs in the fantastic "Star Wars Made Easy" from Christian Blauvelt and Dorling Kindersley...

We are always in our element when there's a big fat fact-filled non-fiction book to review and today sees the release of the latest, greatest edition of the awesome "DK Children's Encyclopedia"...

Once again, non-fiction experts Dorling Kindersley have come up with a truly stunning and superb fact-filled book to dazzle and delight you...

This week's first Book of the Week makes science fun, and engages children in a whole stack of groovy experiments using ordinary household objects. Steve Mould's awesome "How to Be a Scientist"...

Another impossibly brilliant science title from the masters of Non-Fiction, Dorling Kindersley's awesome "First Science Encyclopaedia"...

DK's range of books set such high standards for non-fiction titles that we know we're always in for a treat with any new books they add to their range...

Our second Picture Book of the Week is a luxurious and sumptuous bible filled with amazing facts and background to the hit movie "Star Wars: Rogue One" in the ultimate visual guide...