Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Author & Illustrators

Yuval Zommer Books

The Skies Above My Eyes

Picturebook

Some books are made for sharing and ‘The Skies Above My Eyes’ is a wonderful example of one. The book folds out into a beautifully-illustrated 2.5m long double-sided journey up through the layers of the atmosphere, with small chunks of informative text along the way.

Starting on ground level with a girl standing on a busy street, readers can follow her gaze upwards to pass towering skyscrapers, various aircraft and space vehicles and finally to planets and stars. On the reverse, the girl lays on the grass at the foot of a mountain, looking up towards birds, paragliders, through weather systems, meteoroids and comets.

Much like its predecessor ‘The Street Beneath My Feet’, this book is likely to be a huge hit in the classroom as children will love gathering around the fully folded-out pages to pore over the many details and facts hidden around the different layers of the atmosphere. The text helps to direct the reader to tiny details that they may not have already spotted in the illustrations. Reading the information from the bottom to the top on one side and then the opposite way round on the reverse feels like jumping into a spacecraft and blasting off on a trip to the ends of the solar system and then descending back to the Earth’s surface.

Yuval Zommer’s bold and bright illustrations are hugely appealing and joyful as he masterfully captures the variation of hues and textures that make the skies above us such a visual delight. The thick paper of the book’s concertina pages feels durable and ready to withstand being opened out and refolded many times.

This is a book that young readers will love to treasure and share and one that will hold a strong appeal across the whole primary age range.

The Big Book of Bugs

Yuval Zommer

Non-fiction

This large-sized informative compendium is the kind of non-fiction that children like to come back to again and again to pore over its pages. Each double-page spread dives into a different bug-themed question, such as ‘How does a butterfly flutter by?’ or ‘Where does the name praying mantis come from?’. The illustrations are stunning and come together with the accessible chunks of text to make wonderful and informative spreads that children love exploring.

The Big Book of Blooms

Yuval Zommer

Non-fiction, Picturebook

What does a venus fly trap eat?
How strong is a giant water lily?
Does a cactus flower?
The newest addition to Yuval Zommer’s bestselling series answers these questions and more as it introduces young children to all kinds of colourful, carnivorous, weird and wonderful flowering plants from around the world. It opens with introductory spreads on how to be a botanist; how to recognise different types of flowers; the life-cycle of a plant; flower anatomy; and the seven types of animal pollinators including bats, birds and beetles. Subsequent spreads, illustrated within various habitats, are dedicated to specific varieties of plants, including the carnivorous venus flytrap, the giant water lily and the weird and wonderful corpse flower. Readers will enjoy learning about different edible flowers and why flowers are fragrant or colourful, not to mention grisly details about carnivorous and poisonous flowers.

The Big Book of the Blue

Yuval Zommer

Non-fiction

This large-sized informative compendium about ocean life is the kind of non-fiction that children like to come back to again and again to pore over its pages.

Each double-page spread dives into a different sea-themed question, such as ‘Are jellyfish made of jelly?’ or ‘Why do crabs run sideways?’.

There is never too much text on each page, but what you find is accessible chunks of information cleverly interspersed into each ocean scene. The illustrations are stunning and come together to make wonderful spreads that serve as a treasure trove of visual delights for young eyes, as text and pictures work together to build an understanding of underwater habitats and the life they hold.

The Street Beneath My Feet

Charlotte Guillian & Yuval Zommer

Non-fiction

A beautiful fold-out book that showcases the wonders of the earth beneath our feet, and one with real wow-factor.

This book is well-suited for introducing rocks and soils or geology topics. Sublimely illustrated, its concertina-style pages fold out into a long cross-section of the Earth: in one side and out the other. Children can spread out around the fold-out page to get a real sense of the depth of the earth’s layers and what you might find in each.

This unusual non-fiction text with a tactile element contains a wealth of information about geology and science, linking to topics of rocks and soils and awesome earth and opportunities for further questions from curious young minds. Just stunning!