Over the past thirty years, historians' understanding of the range of significant scientific locations has increased beyond all recognition. Far from being restricted to the laboratory and observatory, sites in which the sciences are considered to have been practised now include venues as diverse as the mountaintop and the public house. This bilingual edited volume seeks to confirm another: the nursery.

Everything from polar exploration to natural theology to fairyland takes its place in Science in the Nursery, which uses a focus on the childish audience to bring together a diverse range of topics, of types of historical material and of analytic approaches. In particular, it is heartening to see a transnational perspective on child-focused works, since existing scholarship on the history of popular science has predominantly stayed within borders. The volume's cross-Channel comparisons provide valuable insights, such as in Richard Somerset's discussion of the differences between French and English editions of Louis Figuier's La Terre avant le déluge. The relatively long time frame on show, from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, also invites comparison and speculation, albeit inferred by the reader rather than explicitly addressed by the essays. In the main, these stick to more specific case studies, as for instance Fanny Robles's analysis of Jules Verne, imperialism and anthropology in late nineteenth-century France. The authors' attention to strategies of managing facts and fancy, and arguments for the ‘double life’ of writings as both stories and textbooks, demonstrates the value of applying literary-critical approaches to these self-consciously instructive and amusing introductory scientific texts. Throughout, there is detailed consideration of what had to be done to writings, ideas and activities to fit science to childish bodies and minds, be it shrunk in scale, in scope or in complexity. And the book's elevation of Arabella Buckley's delightful and important Fairyland of Science into a key text of the period – discussed as it is by several authors, including editor Laurence Talairaich-Vielmas – is also welcome.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the choice was made to open the volume with Jim Secord's ‘Newton in the nursery’ from 1985, a groundbreaking analysis of the success and successive editions of John Newbery's 1761 Newtonian System of Philosophy. The article sets a high standard for what follows; moreover, it betrays the little development in the field in the intervening quarter-century, sketched by Talairaich-Vielmas in an introductory survey. This usefully collates a bibliography of secondary literature on nineteenth-century science for children, yet does little to interrogate and challenge the fundamental categories explored by these essays (particularly ‘popularisation’ and ‘popular science’, and even ‘children's literature’), an interrogation which would reflect more sophisticated, and historicizing, recent analyses. These are categories often assumed by the essayists, rather than critiqued. Moreover, we hear a lot about authors and texts, but there is somewhat less from the occupants of the nursery themselves: the juvenile audiences. Whilst such material is notoriously difficult to access, I feel that alongside these literary dissections and reflections more could have been elicited about their historical context, which changes enormously over the period: whether reading practices at home or at school; reviewers' opinions and editorial amendments; the market for children's literature and the physical appearance of books, including illustration (few images are discussed); or shifting ideas and debates about childhood itself.

Overall, this essay collection is somewhat uneven, but provides much excellent analysis, including useful cross-Channel comparisons, attention to lesser-known texts, and many thought-provoking commentaries. However, a work that really brings science into the nursery remains, I think, to be written.