What is your house made of? Around the world, you will find homes made of mud, stone, wood, glass, metal, concrete and even recycled plastic. Building materials can be strong, flexible, mouldable – and even beautiful! Find out how architects choose the right material for each job.

Sapphire/Band 16 books offer longer reads to develop children's sustained engagement with texts and are more complex syntactically.

Text type: an information book.

Curriculum links: science

Ideas for reading at the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities.

Isabel Thomas is a science writer and the author of a galaxy of books for young audiences. They include Moth: An Evolution Story, which won the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, and Exploring the Elements, a Waterstones and New York Times Book of 2020. Isabel also writes for science magazines and creates STEM outreach resources for organisations such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the BBC.