No kidding

How modernist design has shaped children's lifestyles over the last 100 years – in one handy book

Calling all style-conscious and design-savvy readers, be it parents, hipsters or high-key kids – here's one to inspire and elevate hearts, minds and eyes, guaranteed to put a beaming smile on your face. At a time when the market for well-made, innovative objects for children is undergoing a transformative, global explosion, Design for Children traces the evolution of design for babies, toddlers and beyond, journeying through more than 450 beautiful, creative and stylish examples from toys, furniture and tableware to textiles, lights and even vehicles, from Bauhaus through to the present day.

Many of the names will be familiar, including Kengo Kuma, Philippe Starck, Marc Newson, Piero Lissoni, Marcel Wanders and others, but a great deal of well-known designs items have sprung from more or less anonymous sources, too. Only aesthetic aficionados would recognise Robin Day's Series E Classroom Chair (1971), Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack's Spinning Top (1924), Kay Bojesen's Monkey (1951), and the Charles and Ray Eames Child's Chairs (1944). Written with insight and pizzazz by New York-based design writer and editor Kimberlie Birks, this timely title is a great coffee-table read.