Time travel anyone? Human-eating aliens? Exploding Suns? If that sounds good to you, then Keith Mansfield's series of three Johnny Mackintosh books is what you need. And it doesn't matter how old you are. The hero of the books is thirteen-year-old Johnny Mackintosh, who is busy with football and school work when he picks up signals from extraterrestrials and is catapulted into an adventure that culminates in a mission to save the Earth. Which means that those books are great for anyone aged from about 10 upwards with a taste for adventure and sic-fi — and an interest in mind-bending concepts from real science, which are woven into the plot from the start.

Maths and science related books for children that are fun as well us instructive are rare, so we'd like to mention another couple that have gone down very well with our own offspring. Richard Schwartz's Really big numbers and You can count on monsters are beautifully illustrated books that give kids from around 6 to 8 and intuitive understanding of our number system and prime numbers (respectively). So there's no excuse not to give some maths to your younger friends and family this Christmas!

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