Too Many Books

February 1, 2016 2:12 AM

My five year old is fascinated by Early Humans! Yay! Now which books do I buy?

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of books geared towards kids, and a bit frustrated at how limited the "look inside" function is at Amazon.

Book must be:
- lavishly illustrated
- scientifically sound (obviously a lot of the illustration is guesswork, but at least no known falsehoods)
- detailed and informative enough to be interesting to adults as well

Which books do you love?

posted by Omnomnom to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

I'm a fan of Eyewitness Books: Early Humans. The pictures are fantastic, though the text is too advanced for a five year old, it's something they will grow into. Also, the original 1989 edition is absolutely fine and can be found for next to nothing.
posted by fairmettle at 2:26 AM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Go to your library, ask the childrens' librarian for recommendations, and borrow them! Take them home for a test run, THEN go shopping.

(In my world, there are many books you only read once, some you refer back to, and some that become friends forever...)
posted by LaBellaStella at 3:31 AM on February 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Caveman sticker book. It has a good science basis and is much fun.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:26 AM on February 1, 2016

My sister and I spent many hours poring over the richly-illustrated Early Man as children. It seems some of the info is now out-of-date, but perhaps it's cheap enough to buy in conjunction with another more current book to compare-and-contrast and see how our understanding of things has changed, which is itself a lesson.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:35 AM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]