The "Welcome to the Museum" series of utterly amazing non-fiction books, curated by Katie Scott with Fiona Munro and Ruth Symons now adopts a smaller format, but continues to blaze a trail for non-fiction titles to follow.

"The Story of Life" extends the previous fold-out edition of this title line into a fantastic small format hardback book that may be diminutive in size, but certainly packs a heck of a lot of information in between its gloriously decorated covers.

Once again, we're treated to an amazing and well researched slice of natural history, stemming as far back as the very first emergence of life on our planet, right through to the more complex organisms and animals that we recognise as each era in earth's history ushered in amazing examples of evolutionary diversity.

Having previously been wowed by other "Welcome to the Museum" titles such as Botanicum and Animalium, we really couldn't wait to see how this new smaller format would work.

In fact, as much as we love huge huge books that you need to sprawl out on the floor with, there's definitely something neater about this approach. Books that can easily be tucked into a school bag to take into school and use in lessons are definitely a win for Charlotte, and as we said at the top of the review, there's no paring down of content - which is of course the most important part of any decent Non-Fiction title.

The Triassic Period - Amazing and bizarre creatures emerged, the predecessors of many animals we know today.

Personally, I just can't get enough of Katie Scott's amazing illustrations, picked out in colour throughout but with that same incredibly detailed 'etched' look about them, instantly making these titles feel like those classic natural history books you might see tucked away in museums.

Meet your great great great great great great great (go on and on for a couple of years) grandparents!

There are now so many fantastic quality non-fiction titles around that we're really pleased to see Big Picture Press continuing to publish books that really show how it should be done. Beautifully presented, gorgeously illustrated, thoroughly researched and well written, and able to span a huge wide age range, these are definitely keepers whether you choose to buy them for school or for home.

"The Story of Life" by Fiona Munro, Ruth Symons and Katie Scott is out now, published by Big Picture Press (kindly supplied for review). 

When is the right time to introduce your children to non-fiction books? When indeed - we opt for 'as early as possible' because as much as children love stories, they're always in awe of the world around them too.
Dealing with the tricky subject of evolution and how the world around us has changed, and is constantly changing might sound like a fairly hefty and meaty subject for the very young, but handled correctly - as in this utterly brilliant book by Catherine Barr and Steve Williams, with gorgeous illustrations by Amy Husband, children's natural curious streak will inevitably set them up for a lifelong love of acquiring knowledge through books.

"The Story of Life" begins back when the earth was shrouded in darkness, when volcanic ash and lava carved out our landscape long before life began. As the first microscopic lifeforms began to appear, the book takes us on a fascinating journey through earth's history showing how plants and animals adapted and evolved right across the earth's surface.

Children will love exploring this book - again one of those gorgeous non-fiction titles that just begs to be laid out on the floor so you can sprawl in front of it to explore it further. Amy's illustrations might seem quite simple but they draw you in, and there are lots of fun animal characters to engage with as the book shows us tiny life springing up and becoming huge hulking dinosaurs, before settling down into the species we share our world with today (oh and us, of course!)

For a long time now we've been seeing dramatic strides and improvements in children's non fiction titles, and it's really fantastic to see a title aimed at the very young that will inevitably become a keepsake, something for them to explore for years to come. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Charlotte's best bit: The arrival of the (very naughty and quite cheeky) apes!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A really thorough and wonderfully immersive introduction to the evolution of our planet, a book that will completely capture the imagination and inquisitiveness of little ones from cover to cover.

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