One Shelf at a Time - Shelf 3

Down to the bottom shelf of the living room bookcase, which holds my scrapbook albums and more reference books. This shelf is deeper, so has some of the larger books - mainly art, nature and geography. Sharing three of my favourites:

Animals of the World (Martin Walters and Jinny Johnson). This book is one of a series of children's reference books that were around in discount book stores several years ago. I bought this one from the supermarket for £5, and it has been one of our most used reference books. If Angel and Star want to look up something about an animal, or to find a picture of an animal to draw, this is the book that always comes out. It is a thorough encyclopedia, with lots of detail, and seems to have just the right balance of text and pictures. It is arranged as a series of double page spreads in seven sections: simple animals; worms, snails and starfish; insects and other arthropods; fish; amphibians and reptiles; birds; and mammals. I particularly like the way it is so comprehensive. Plenty of books have information on elephants or crocodiles, but not so many include protists and bristleworms. One of my best book buys. It looks as though it is still available under the title World of Animals.

Children of Britain Just Like Me (Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley). This British version is less well known than their original book Children Just Like Me, looking at real children around the world. It has a very similar format, with photographic illustrations and snippets of text about different aspects of each individual child's life. The children featured come from varied locations, cultures and backgrounds, ranging from a Jewish girl in London, to a farmer's son from the Scottish Highlands, to a circus child ... and so on. Non-fiction books for children about life in modern Britain are hard to come by, and this is one of the best I've found.

Heaven and Earth: Unseen by the Naked Eye (David Malin and Katherine Roucoux) is a coffee table book (for strong coffee tables - it's heavy!) of photographs taken using microscopes and telescopes. It begins with the micro (a gold atom) and moves out gradually to end with galaxies and the universe. Amazing pictures.

My friend Shari at Saint Anthony's Hobbit Homeschool has decided to join the fun, so do go and poke through her bookshelves too.