Is there any length to which a publisher won't go to convince parents (uncles, grannies) that children can be persuaded to read educational books?
While the serial novels that pre-teens love fly off the shelves in the simplest of packaging, these worthier volumes are inevitably design-led, in full colour throughout, with illustrations, diagrams, cutaways and snazzy typefaces on every page - plus "interactive" quizzes and the like.
The Walker Bright Sparks series, aimed at young schoolgoers, is typical. Each volume tackles a science subject - Wild, Wet and Windy is about weather, Disguises and Surprises about animal camouflage, etc - in twenty-four action-packed pages.
They're grand - Rocking and Rolling explains plate tectonics very smartly indeed - but at Stg£3.99 for each paperback or Stg£8.99 for the hardbacks, Walker saw you coming. The science magazines that occasionally turn up in newsagents are certainly better value.
Walker Books can do better. The Greek News and The Roman News (£5.99 each in UK), latest efforts in a history series from this publisher, are superb introductions to the classical world in newspaper format on beautiful large pages. Aimed at nine- to-13-year-olds, their "articles" range from "Caesar Stabbed!" to a succinct explanation of ancient Greek trade routes.
Informania: Vampires (Wal ker, £10.99 in UK), by Martin Jenkins, is practically multimedia. Attractively spiralbound, it includes a picturestrip of Dracula, reviews of vampire movies, and, of course, The V-Files. There's also plenty of real information on blood-sucking animals and the history of vampire myths.
A trio of Dorling Kindersley books that landed on my desk are basically TV tie-ins of varying quality. If you've been frustrated watching Neil Buchanan fly through the DIY art projects on TV's Art Attack, you'll appreciate the Pause that the book of the same name (£9.99 in UK) represents.
Special Effects in Film and Television (£10.99 in UK), on the other hand, could seriously do with a Play button. And you can rewind Ivor Baddiel's anorak-oriented Ultimate Football (£9.99 in UK) right back to the shop when you notice the now-outdated (and crap, anyway) World Cup wall chart.
Puffin's Mysteries of . . . series of large-format paperbacks is rather more honourable. The one I read, Mysteries of Prehistoric Life (£4.99 in UK), is not exactly breaking new ground, but it gracefully combines the facts about dinosaurs, homo erectus, etc., with information about how scientists "discover" facts from the distant past, and stories from the history of science.
Pseudo-science, too, has its place on the kids' bookshelves. The children's division of Element Books - an independent company that has a distribution arrangement with Penguin - recently published The Element Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mind, Body, Spirit and Earth (£14.99 in UK). Lavishly illustrated (some of the pictures of ghosts and demons would definitely scare my kids) but also dense with text - Dorling Kindersley is an obvious model - Joanna Crosse's 160-page volume oozes the enthusiasm of an especially credulous New Ager.
"The aim of this book is to stimulate, not to endorse; to raise questions and not to give answers," it says on the cover flap. Oh yeah? Page 20: "A very simple example of ESP happens when you decide to call a friend and you dial the number only to find it busy because they're trying to get hold of you." That's the only explanation, right enough.
To be fair, a bright spark might enjoy critical engagement with the myriad, contradictory philosophies spread out under headings such as "Consciousness", "Chinese Astrology", "Gods and Goddesses", "Chakras and Meridians", "Extraterrestrials and UFOs", "Feng Shui", "Tarot", etc., etc. It's certainly one way to learn . . .
Harry Browne is an Irish Times staff journalist