If you are having trouble getting children’s attention, scaring the daylights out of them usually works. Trevor Day’s Guide to Savage Earth (Dorling Kindersley pound;12.99) should do the trick. Extraordinary large-format photographs underline the beauties as well as the terrors of volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, mudslides, forest fires, and other things you hope never to meet. The images are so arresting that it is difficult to pay much attention to the text, but those who do will learn plenty of geophysics, along with the usual quota of amazing facts. Suitable for anyone from seven years up with a taste for disasters and a robust disposition.

Scariness sells dinosaurs, too, which is why big ones with lots of teeth leer out from the covers of four new dinosaur books. The Rolls-Royce is Dorling Kindersley’s Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life (pound;19.99). This is a stunning production for 11-year-olds to adults, packed with information and the usual mix of the scientific and the fanciful, which is dinosaur illustration.

As the title suggests, it covers other early life as well - from trilobites to Neanderthal man - and is unusual in using the modern framework known as cladistics to map relationships between species. No old-fashioned stuff about the tree of life here.

The main body of the book is organised by species, and the familiar Dorling Kindersley style lends itself well to integrating illustrations of what prehistoric creatures might have looked like, with images that show what our knowledge of them is based on. There is more of the latter in the lengthy reference section that ends the book, and tells the budding palaeontologist enough about how the job is done to give a real feel for the science.

In any other batch of books, The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia (pound;18.99) would look impressive. It has the same combination of authoritative text, striking visuals and clear design. But DK offers 150 pages more for an extra quid. Less sumptuous than either of these, though also less daunting for the under-11s, is The Encyclopedia of Awesome Dinosaurs (Franklin Watts pound;12.99), though the Oxford First Book of Dinosaurs (pound;6.99), which does exactly what it says on the tin, is an attractive alternative.

For life forms still with us, Tim Knight’s Journey into the Rainforest (Oxford pound;6.99) provides a change from dinosaurs, and from encyclopedias. This is a nicely turned first-person narrative, taking the reader deep into the heart of the tropical forest. A fine introduction to this rich ecosystem, and to the dilemmas of conservation, which must always figure in beginners’ books nowadays.

For slightly older readers, maybe top primary, Canadian Ronald Orenstein’s New Animal Discoveries (Key Porter pound;8.99 in the UK) relates the stories of a clutch of species new to science. There may be few corners of the globe unvisited, but surprises still abound. And conservation comes to the fore here as the species we have just come across somehow tend to be ones which are already endangered. This blink-and-you’ll-miss-them message is as alarming, in its own way, as Trevor Day’s disasters.

There are still plenty of surprises in the oceans, as well as conservation challenges, as David Attenborough’s latest blue chip television series The Blue Planet has shown. Associated books include the attractive Ocean World (BBC Worldwide pound;7.99) for key stages 1 to 2, and even a Blue Planet sticker book (pound;3.99) and 3-D Underwater World (pound;5.99), complete with green and red glasses, for still younger readers, or even non-readers.

For an appealing account of one favourite ocean species, key stage 1 readers can enjoy Nicola Davies’s Wild About Dolphins (Walker Books, pound;4.99). She has a first-hand authority to match her unbounded enthusiasm for these beguiling creatures. An author who can describe the magic of swimming with dolphins is an advantage the dinosaur books will never be able to match!

All of which make the First Encyclopedia of the Oceans (Usborne pound;8.99) look like the traditional offering it is. Loosely assembled double-page spreads cover ocean life, weather and climate, and transport. There are lots of photos, drawings and text accessible from KS2 on. The First Encyclopedia of Space (Usborne pound;8.99) is in the same series, and also filled with useful stuff for homework and projects. I do wish Usborne wouldn’t print text over photo backgrounds, though. Apart from looking nasty, it often makes the details harder to read, even for grown-ups. Against this, they have assembled internet links to a well-chosen website for each spread on a page to be found on their own site. However, lest you think that a visit to www.usborne-quicklinks.com will mean you might not need to buy the book, you will find you have to enter a page number to bring up the link you want.

The Young Oxford Encyclopedia of Science (Oxford pound;30) also has a superbly organised dedicated website (www.oup.comscience-encyclopedia) which does not depend on the book. But you wouldn’t want your library to be without a copy. This is a handsome production, from many hands, with individual articles carefully organised, cross-referenced and enriched by relevant illustrations which do not overpower the text. Each topic essay begins with a small fact or story to encourage reading on.

All together, the well-written and accurate expositions which follow must contain as much science, as clearly explained, as you could possibly stuff into one volume which is not too big to lift. There are 300 topics, from acids and alkalis to X-rays, but some inquirers within are still going to be disappointed. The back cover mentions BSE, for example, but the only mention of the disease inside the book doesn’t explain what causes it. Still, what is here will be gratefully transcribed for a million KS2 and 3 homework assignments. It should even keep some users reading on long after they have answered their initial question, as any good reference book should.

Jon Turney teaches science communication at University College London