by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones 

For today’s reviews, I decided to take a look at two new illustrated non-fiction books for younger readers. We’ll be getting off the ground with Sky High! before soaring to the end of the universe with Big Bangs and Black Holes. Both books bring science and technology to life with their brilliant illustrations, introducing children and teenagers to aviation and cosmology in an inspiring and captivating way. Complex concepts are made accessible and entertaining – perfect for budding engineers and scientists of any age. And not only are they bursting with fascinating facts, they also demonstrate why in some parts of the world, comic books are known as the ninth art. Big, bold and beautiful – these are books to treasure that would make great gifts for curious young readers.

Let’s start with Sky High! by Jacek Ambrożewksi, originally published in Poland and suitable for children aged 8+. If something travels through the air, you’ll find it in this book: from seeds and flying squirrels to hot air balloons, drones and Dreamliners. First, we learn how plants and animals evolved to glide or fly further, faster or more acrobatically – and why that was an advantage – before turning to humankind’s attempts to conquer the skies. We quickly discover that the early history of aviation was a litany of falls, accidental discoveries and heroic bravery (or stupidity?). But once the physics of flight were understood and new forms of propulsion invented, well, the sky really was the limit! Each double page spread of Sky High! is a self-contained step towards modern aircraft, where machines can do anything and the weakest link are the pilots themselves. With simple but precise diagrams, Ambrożewski explains the physics behind flight and how engines work, as well as pointing out all the distinctive features of an aircraft and the stories of the engineers and inventors who made them. We learn about every possible kind of flying machine – combat aircraft, cargo planes, agricultural helicopters, solar-powered gliders as well as all the not-so-successful attempts that survive only on the pages of books like these. It’s comprehensive and detailed, light-hearted and fun. Young readers will want to go back to this book again and again.

Once young readers have become experts in aviation, they may set their sights even higher: to space and beyond. Enter, Big Bangs and Black Holes: A Graphic Novel Guide to the Universe. And with a broader scope (the broadest!) comes a higher age range – readers aged 13+. Originally published in Switzerland, Big Bangs introduces key concepts of cosmology in a highly entertaining way. Our guide, Dr Celeste Aster, is accompanied by Nobel Prize laureate Michel Mayor and Gabrielle, Dr Aster’s grumpy teenage niece, on a journey through space-time. Here too we meet historical figures like Galileo and Newton, exploring their ideas and the impact they had on later scientists. Then, from Einstein onwards and with the contribution of more recent cosmologists like Mayor himself, we cover everything from tiny quarks to the expanding universe. Equally fascinating, we discover just how much we don’t know, whether that’s about the dawn of time itself, the inside of a black hole or mysterious dark energy. What I loved about this book is the comic book style and silly gags, such as hot-tempered, foul-mouthed particles colliding into each other like angry motorists, or a ravenous black hole consuming everything around it, fast-food fizzy drink included. It’s not just the topic that is more complicated, there’s a degree of irony and self-referential jokes that will appeal to older readers (“I’ve got to solve all the puzzles of the cosmos before the second volume comes out!”). Jam-packed with information, this is another book to return to time and again (no wormholes needed). 

Meet Zosia Krasodomska-Jones :

Zosia has been translating Polish literature for a number of years, carving a grubby niche with recent publications including The Book of Dirt (by Piotr Socha and Monika Utnik-Strugała) and What We Leave Behind (by Stanisław Łubieński), a series of dispatches on waste in all its forms. She lives in Brussels where she works as an interpreter, covering a somewhat broader range of topics in European affairs.

The most thrilling experience of her life was a flying lesson in a tiny plane – had she read Sky High! before then she might not have been so terrified of falling out of the sky.