The first bell of the school year rang, calling students back into the classrooms to attend classes. Parents of the youngest students are wondering how they could keep their children creatively occupied during free hours and on the weekend. The fact is that children’s popular science textbooks are one of the pillars of the book market, and the options for young…explorers and their guardians are endless, as are the grains of sea sand they have just days ago parted with.

Enastron Publications offers the opportunity for primary school students to return to nature for a while again, through the series of books “Excursions to the Village”, by Mary Koutroulis-Skamnaki. The series consists of a book about winter excursions and another book about the summer walks of a grandfather and his grandson in a village in Crete. The occupation with agricultural work and the free time for nature observation give children the opportunity to appreciate outdoor games such as “tree house” and to be enchanted by a “bike ride” or the sight of a “bee house”. The illustrations by Efi Gyparaki invite pupils to discover with their own colours the beautiful emotions that these pages hide!

If nature from ancient times could move the thoughts of philosophy and mathematics in the minds of people, then surely after reading “Excursions to the Village”, the lilliputian readers will be thirsty for the discovery of ancient Greek mythology combined with the learning of a foreign language. One of Psychogios’ most stylish publications is Maria Papadimitriou’s English-language pop-up book, ”The Gods of Olympus.” Young readers will not only get a review of what they know about Zeus, Hera and the rest of the Olympian pantheon of gods, but will also have the opportunity to enrich their English vocabulary with concepts such as “commerce.” “honour” and “foretell”. Andriana Roussou’s pop-up illustrations make the book ideal for autumn evenings when the minds of young and old alike will long to experience something ‘alive’ and ‘adventurous’.

Stephen Hawking’s thoughts on the universe and our coexistence with other people in it are the subject of the inspiring, illustrated book “You and the Universe” (Psychogios publications). The sparkling mind of Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy, together with Xin Li’s large-scale illustrations, captivates young and old alike, in a short narrative that, thanks to the multiple questions it poses, is read again and again. In the book’s appendix, many of the children’s questions are answered and the vision of one of the world’s most brilliant scientists is revealed in its fullness: ”Above all, Stephen believed that science should be fun, motivating and embracing for everyone. Through YOU AND THE UNIVERSE, his mission to educate the youngest inhabitants of our planet lives on.”

On quiet Saturday afternoons in autumn, can anyone imagine a better pastime than asking and answering questions with the people you love most? Indeed, Thiago de Moraes’s massive Discovery Atlas (published by Psychogios Publications) looks back on chronicles of discoveries both smaller and larger, from football and chocolate to money and smart phones. And if children are thrilled to learn about some of the discoveries of the grown-ups, adults will also discover that many names like Franz Reichelt and Vera Rubin may have remained unknown to themselves. So don’t waste a moment and ask yourself and your little explorers: “What happens if I rub one stone with another?” Or “What are those lights that glow at night?”

Do you have pupils over 6 years old at home? Do they want to make their dreams come true one day? Then there is no more suitable companion for this journey than Ara, the Dream inventor (published by Klidarithmos Publications, written by Komal Singh and illustrated by Ipek Konak). Like all children her age, Ara dreams big. As many ideas visit her in her dream world, she decides to create a Dream Decoder to capture them. With the help of her robot and her Super Team, Ara will help the other children to understand through inclusion the value of collaboration and unusual concepts from the business world, such as “start-up” and “accelerator”.

An integral part of the modern STEAM educational approach is the intuitive familiarisation of students with science, technology and the arts. The work of Dimitris Kouloumasis and Christina Sarigiannis, “Mr. Chem and the Ultimate Scientific Challenge” (Klidarithmos Publications) is directed towards this quest. Filled with explanations of interesting scientific experiments and with the inventive illustrations of Eleni Achilleopoulou, this book is addressed to students 9 years old and above, offering an original scientific challenge that bridges chemistry with social media.