Non-fiction books - recommendations please

[jmg]

My DD(5) has recently been covering non-fiction books at school and has asked me to see if Santa can bring her some for Christmas.

My DS has loads of non-fiction books - cars, dinosaurs, trucks etc. But so far the only non-fiction book I can think of for DD is perhaps a cookery book.

She does already have a junior dictionary.

Please help!
All suggesions welcomed...

Crafting, making things. Gardening.

Dorling Kindersley do great kids non-fiction books of all kinds.

Encyclopaedia or Atlas?
Nature books (animals, people, etc.)
Sport

Thank you Janstar and CnR - some good ideas there - I will just go and investigate on Amazon!

Thanks again.

My DD loved "The Shaman's Apprentice - A tale of the Amazon Rain Forest" by Lynne Cherry and Mark J. Plotkin, based on story of a tribe and their use of traditional herb medicinesgreat drawingswe loved to memorize the pictures of the herbs and the names.

Also, "Jump the World" by Sarah Pooley, Stories, Poems and Things to Make and Do from around the World. Really a good, fun book, we loved it.

See if you can locate: "Fun Finding Out" which was a WHSmith Exclusive Book listed with ISBN 0-906279-28-3, the words were by Deborah Manley. It was reprinted in 1986, but don't know if it is still available. Great Information and activities to do with each of the units, People & Places, Plants and Animals, Long Ago...etc. Fabulous Book.

Dover Publications has a great line of to-do books in the US that are wonderful, we have several, one of them was Dinosaur Masks by AG. Smith and Josie Hazen, but I know they have a lot more great themes that would appeal to your DD.

"Paper Fun for Kids" by Marion Elliot has lots of fun projects also. "Art Fun" Kim Solga Art editor, ISBN 0-89134-833-6, step by step projects - great book to have in the house as the kids get older too. For cooking: Australian Women's Weekly, "Get Real, Make a Meal" is great along with "The Usborne Internet-Linked Children's World Cookbook" (Excellent).

Couldn't help but add these also, I know they are fiction but....The Barefoot Book of Princesses retold by Caitlin Matthews and illlustrated by Olwyn Whelan, Rapunzel retold and illustrated by Paul O Zelinski (GORGEOUS), Now we Can Have a Wedding by Judy Cox, and I love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose Lewis were a few of our favorites--so hard to pick!!

I hope you get to enjoy these and have wonderful holidays together!

any drling (or dorking..?) kingsley books are excellent.
range from toddler age upi to top junior////
Ds 17 mths has ABC one and loves it - brill pics etc

that'd be dorling kingsley

M&S have some nice books in at the moment too, including non fiction.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/online/online.asp

look under kids non fic

There was a good article about children's non-fiction in the Guardian recently - see here - it recommends particular series eg the Walker Read and Wonder series, also Dorling Kindersley etc.

Thank you all so much for your help. My DD is very into making things so I can't believe I didn't think of craft books.

I also think some of the guardian recommendations are excellent. She did a project on life-cycles of a butterfly last term and loved it so I think something nature orientated would be a great idea.

I promise to come back to this thread after Christmas and let you all know if your ideas were a hit!

Thanks again

My dd's have a lovely series (four books) called "Are You A Spider?" "Are You A Ladybird?" etc published by Kingfisher. The Barbie cookbook is very pretty, has some nice simple ideas and is v girlie. My 8 year old likes Horrible Histories particulalrly for subjects they've done in History lessons like the Tudors. Would agree with Dorling Kindersley - their Eyewitness series of paperbacks are fantastic, cover a massive range of subjects and are brilliant value (only £5.99 I think).

My boys (4 and 6) have really enjoyed this series of books as an introduction to art.

The web page doesn't give all the details The four Laurence Anholt books are: Camille and the sunflowers; Picasso and the girl with the ponytail; Degas and the little dancer; Leonardo and the flying boy.

We took the boys to the art galleries in London this summer to look for some of the paintings they had read about. DS1 was very excited when he spotted the Degas statue in the Tate Modern before I did!

This is a very good price too from Redhouse - I'm not on commission, promise! But the books are also often available through public libraries for free

KMG - I just wanted to say that I did order the books you recommended and a huge bundle of other ones from red-house. They arrived today and I've just opened them.

They are absolutely lovely, the art books are exactly the kind of books she likes. Thanks for the recommendation

I bought £110 of books in total (at RRP) and they only cost £30 including P&P. I will give some to the children for christmas and put the rest into the present drawer for schoolmates birthday pressies.

My MIL is getting my DD an encylopedia and we are getting a picture atlas as well for her. So all in all this was fantastic advice from mumsnetters!

Thank you all!