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This Book Will Make You a Scientist by Dr Sheila Kanani ill. Ellen Surrey

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Apr 2026

Publisher: Nosy Crow Ltd
ISBN: 9781805132547

“Attractive, colourful illustrations throughout make the book very visually appealing and small pictures are used to support understanding of the experiment instructions. A detailed glossary is included to explain some of the technical terms used and the contents page indicates the name of the scientist and the experiment which can be found on each page, making it easy for children to chose a specific idea or browse at their leisure.” ThroughTheBookshelf
“The step-by-step experiments are a brilliant addition to the book, and any budding young scientists will enjoy having a go at testing out the various scientific theories themselves. The experiments are clear, accessible and would work well as activities in schools.” BookTrust

Read an interview with the author 
 on ReadingZone

Measure the speed of light like Albert Einstein! Train to be an astronaut like Mae Jemison! Communicate with chimpanzees like Jane Goodall! This book will make YOU a scientist as you explore 25 different scientific ideas inspired by ground-breaking scientists through history!

Discover 25 of the world’s most incredible scientists in this fact-filled book full of step-by-step science experiments that are easy to try at home. From making your own volcano and extracting DNA from a strawberry to exploring electricity, evolution and gravity, this imaginative book is jam-packed with ideas for aspiring scientists everywhere!

  • Friendly, accessible text written by planetary physicist, science presenter and school science teacher Dr Sheila Kanani MBE, author of Blue Peter Award-shortlisted How to Be an Astronaut and Can You Get Rainbows in Space?
  • Featuring biographies of 25 fantastic scientists, plus an exciting science-based experiment to try on every spread.
  • Vibrant, full colour illustrations on every page and a stunning cloth-effect cover
  • Created in consultation with experts from the University of Cambridge
  • The fantastic follow-up to This Book Will Make You an Artist (“A great choice for curious and creative kids” – The Independent)

List of scientists featured: Tapputi-Belatekallim, Archimedes, Kamal al-Din al-Farisi, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Caroline Herschel, James Jay, Charles Darwin, Mary Anning, Nikola Tesla, S.P.L Søresnen, Ynés Mexia, Albert Einstein, Alexander Fleming, Alice Ball, Dorothy Hodgkin, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Maynard Daly, Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Jane Goodall, Katia Krafft, Christine Darden, Stephen Hawking, Mae Jemison and Ritu Karidhal.

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Inside Your Brain: 10 discoveries that reveal how the brain works by Lucy Ann Unwin & Professor ill. María Jesús Contreras

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 30 Jul 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

This comedic journey through science history explores ten mind-bending accidents and experiments that take us inside the brain to discover how it works.

Written by professor of neuroscience Caswell Barry, together with his good friend, the children’s author Lucy Ann Unwin, Inside Your Brain takes readers on an irreverent gallop through history to uncover ten groundbreaking discoveries that led to our current understanding of how the brain works.

The human brain is famously complex and difficult to understand. The brain is also essential to how we function — so much so, that you can’t simply poke a stick at it to see what happens. However, if someone accidentally pokes a stick through their own brain, there’s a lot we can learn…

The ancient Egyptians discovered in battle that the brain was more important than they’d thought; Luigi Galvani sent electric shocks through dead frogs’ legs and uncovered how brain cells work; Phineas Gage’s unfortunate accident on the railroads revealed that you can survive a metal rod through the head because the brain operates using separate regions; while some unwitting kittens helped us understand how our brain develops.

This book also touches on our present and future potential to continue testing the brain, such as how we can learn an enormous amount about how the brain processes information from AI, without experimenting on a human subject. This entertaining and engaging deep dive into the most mind-boggling area of science is sure to fascinate and delight young readers.

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She says about herself:
I’m an illustrator born and raised in the south of Chile. My illustrations feature bold and saturated colors, where fear and humor are my main inspirations. I create a weekly illustration for The New York Times as part of The Morning column on Saturdays. Currently working for clients such as The Washington Post, Penguin Random House, Texas Monthly, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, The Economist, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, NPR, Gucci, Hermès, Apple, Lush, and McDonald’s, among many others. My work has been featured on platforms like It’s Nice That, Domestika, WeTransfer, Colossal, and Creative Boom. In 2022, I was honored to receive the Young Guns Award from The One Club for Creativity. In 2023, I was named an AI42 Winner, shortlisted for WIA2023, and invited to judge the Latin American Design Awards, the New Blood Portfolio Competition for D&AD, and the Young Guns. In 2024, I was part of the jury for the ADC 104th Annual Awards and was recognized by Forbes as one of Chile’s 50 most powerful women.

Darwin’s Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular by Polly Owen ill. Gwen Millward

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Waterstones
Amazon
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Charles Darwin is widely known for his “Origin of Species” book, yet Darwin had another great love — worms.

This is the fascinating true story of how Charles Darwin came to discover that the humble earthworm is the most important species on our planet.

Darwin suspected worms were special but his scientist friends laughed at him. In a quest to find out the worms’ special talent, Darwin played the bassoon to them to see if they could hear and laid out a picnic treasure hunt for them to see how well they could smell.

But not matter what he tried, Darwin couldn’t find anything extra special about worms. Until, one day he realised that worms do have a superpower. They POO! Without their life sustaining, nutrient rich poo, there would be no plants and no animals on earth.

Darwin’s 40 years studying worms is still essential to our understanding of worms today, and ever since, scientists have taken him VERY seriously, and never again laughed at his love of worms.

Told in a humorous and engaging way with non-fiction information on each page to help educate alongside the story, curious minds will love this fact-filled, laugh-out-loud title.