Olivier Charbonnel & Annabelle Buxton Books

Here at Booksfortopics HQ there were “oohs” and “aahs” aplenty as we pored over this delightful pop-up information book. Packed with impressive pop-ups constructed from intricate paper-engineering, this is a book that brings to life the topic of the solar system and makes it appear to jump off the page.

Through the small chunks of text, well-placed captions, stunning illustrations by Annabelle Buxton and delightful pop-ups by paper engineer Olivier Charbonnel, this book explains how the moon is formed and what the different phases are. Other topics include eclipses, tides, gravity and the moon’s mysterious effects on creatures on Earth. Our favourite page of all covers the first moon landing, including a brilliant pop-up television that makes you feel like you are watching through a real screen.

Impressive and delightful but also informative, this is the kind of non-fiction book that adults and children alike will savour and enjoy. It would make a very popular addition to KS2 classroom libraries or to book collections for the Earth & Space topic.