One Little Egg: Exploring Nature for Curious Kids
By Becky Davies and Charlotte Pepper
A great non-fiction book for KS1 and EYFS, in a sturdy board book format. Plenty to interest older kids too. This intuitive lift the flap non-fiction book is a wonderful introduction to birds and exploring outdoors which will really appeal to young children.
I love the original start to this book, with a page on birds eggs. Some great EYFS and KS1 Maths possibilities with different eggs drawn to scale and reference points given so that young children can get a sense of their size. See two examples in the pictures.
Each double page spread in this non-fiction board book covers a different theme. Includes pointers for beginner bird spotters, the nest birds build, what you can feed them in your garden and it even encourages you to collect and explore their fantastic feathers. The pictures are bright and bold, curious young children will have fun lifting the flaps (perhaps with a grown-up) to find out lots of interesting facts.
Rosa’s Big Bird Feeder Experiment
By Jessica Spanyol
Another fantastic non-fiction book series with a science theme. This would be great to support STEM thinking in EYFS and and year 1 and year 2. In a sturdy, easy to hold board book format.
One of the things I love about Rosa’s stories is the diverse children that appear in them, from a range of BAME backgrounds. It also includes children that wear glasses, which are surprising under represented in picture books for young children. This diverse representations is something the publisher Childs Play excels at.
This book captures young children’s voices and conversations. As they explore, investigate, make mistakes, try again and learn about science in a hands on way. The children make bird feeders out of everyday materials, then they improve them. Love how this story captures young children’s ability to problem solve and co-operate whilst doing something practical outdoors.
The Magic of Flight
By Nicola Davies and Lorna Scobies
This oversized non-fiction book takes an informative and eye-opening look at all aspects of the ability of birds to fly. Written by the awesome author and illustrator pairing of Nicola Davies and Lorna Scobie, this is an informative and eye-catching book. There is plenty to interest all sorts of readers but it would be an especially good choice for reluctant and less keen readers in KS2.
Clear coloured bars on the left-hand side of each giant double page introduce you to a different aspect of flight. These include: Mysterious History, Flying records, Vertebrate wings, Finding the Way (how birds navigate) and much more.
I found out so many fascinating things about birds, bats and insects and their incredible power to fly. That as Nicola Davies explains in the introduction to her book opens up both possibilities and challenges.
A Wild Child’s Book of Birds
By Dara McAnulty and Barry Falls
Dara McAnulty is an autistic young person who lives in Ireland, with a passion for nature. You may have heard of his first book ‘A Diary of a Young Naturalist’ which has won awards.
In this beautiful and informative book Dara take’s you through a year in the life of birds. You are introduced to the features of different birds, and are also delighted with prose and atmospheric pictures from illustrator Barry Falls. It’s great that it focuses on Birds in Britain and Ireland which means young people will have a change of spotting those birds for themselves. But, this is so much more than a bird book and is likely to encourage a new connections with people of all ages to noticing and appreciating nature.
When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies: An Incredible story of bird evolution
Published by Words and Pictures and imprint of Quarto Knows
This is a part of a fantastic non-fiction series on evolution that would be great for older readers in KS2 and KS3 with an interest in Science.
It begins with an introduction to dinosaurs, fossils and Charles Darwin,. Then the main part of the book explores the discovering of ‘bird like’ dinosaur fossils and what this has taught us about the evolution of birds. What’s wonderful about this series is how real and exciting it makes the study of geology and fossils and in doing so opens up many opportunities for exploring evolution. Case studies of important discoveries of dinosaur fossils discovered across the world are mixed in with looking more closely at the evolution of feathers, colour and what and how the first birds ate.
A truly fascinating and detailed book that would be great to support evolution and science topics in year 5 and above. It would also be a great choice to engage children and young people in reading for pleasure, especially those who are curious about dinosaurs, science, fossils and/or the natural world.
Available to Buy from me at Readers that Care