Eyewitness Books

Eyewitness Books (called Eyewitness Guides in the UK) is a series of educational nonfiction books. They were first published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley in 1988. The series now has over 160 titles on a variety of subjects, such as dinosaurs, Ancient Egypt, flags, chemistry, music, the Solar System, film, and William Shakespeare. According to Dorling Kindersley, over 50 million copies have been sold in 36 languages. The books are often noted for their numerous photographs and detailed illustrations, which are always set against a white background. Describing the series in Booklist, Michael Cart wrote, "What DK did—with almost revolutionary panache—was essentially to reinvent nonfiction books by breaking up the solid pages of grey type that had previously been their hallmark, reducing the text to bite-size, nonlinear nuggets that were then surrounded by pictures that did more than adorn—they also conveyed information. Usually full colour, they were so crisply reproduced they 'seemed to leap off the page.'" All 160 titles were later adapted into a television series, with theme music composed by Guy Michelmore.