George and the Big Bang by Lucy and Stephen Hawking

Published by Doubleday, Random House Children's Books

My daughter is 6 and a bit young to understand this book, however I'm a teacher and was keen to review it to see what it would be like for older children. I read the book myself and really enjoyed it. This is the third in a series of books about George and his space adventures, but you don't need to have read the other books to understand or follow this one.

George is good friends with his next-door neighbour Annie and her scientist dad Eric. Eric's super-computer Cosmos has taken Eric and the children on all sorts of space adventures in the past. Eric is working on one of the biggest science experiments of all time. He's going to be working at the Large Hadron Collider to explore the earliest moments of the Universe - the big bang. Not everyone is happy about the experiments though, and George and Annie discover a plot to try and destroy the experiment and the collider. With help, George and Annie have to outwit a group intent on stopping the experiment forever.

For any children 9 years and over who are interested in science and space, this book would be a fantastic read. My daughter loves space and I thought I would be able to read it to her, but it really is one for older children. The plot is quite complicated and the science is quite involved. Great for those children who want a book to read that really makes them think.

Although the science can be a bit complicated for children, the book also contains a series of brilliant factual sections. These explain all the scientific theories in the book, from the Big and Bang and the Expansion of the Universe to Particle Collision and the Big Hadron Collider. There are also several very interesting, child-friendly essays on the latest scientific theories, written by scientists such as Dr Stephen Hawking.

Finally, as is all that wasn't enough, there are also lots of beautiful colour picture sections full of amazing photos of Earth, galaxies and our Solar System.

This is a really good book, perfect for older children, with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. Children will learn a great deal from the factual sections as well as enjoying a really exciting story. I would highly recommend it, especially at the moment when the Large Hadron Collider is so prominent in the news. Hopefully it will inspire the next generation of scientists.

Amazon link