Amazing Pop-up House of Inventions by Robert Crowther
(Walker Books, £12.99) Age: 4-7 yrs

Pop-up books are usually inadvisable for classroom use but this is more durable than most. Each spread offers a 3-D illustration of a room, plastered with sturdy flaps, underneath which lie hundreds of fascinating facts. Bizarre details range from the inventor of the box-shaped kite to information about a chocolate gramophone record, but there is also a lot of day-to-day information, each little chunk appealingly brief and to the point. An attempt at conventionality - a spread entitled Some Inventions that Changed the Way we Live - is useful, but let's face it, it's the flaps that will appeal.

The Total Volunteering Book by Sandra Cain and Michelle Maxwell
(A&C Black, £6.99)
Age: 11-18 yrs

One of the strains of adolescence is a desire to take responsibility in a world that doesn't consider you particularly responsible. Volunteering is an excellent way of channelling energies into something constructive. This paperback includes a selection of personal accounts offering a wide variety of volunteering experiences - sports coaching, taking people with disabilities on holiday, reading to older people, sponsored events, and so on. There is also an alphabetical listing of organisations to contact, each relevant to young people in the UK, and guidance on how to choose the organisation that best suits you.