Connections is a collection of cross-curricular literacy books for Oxford University Press, of which I am very proud to be the Series Editor. We chose twelve of the QCA schemes of work (4 History, 4 Geography and 4 Science) covering the whole KS2 range, and asked experts in the subject to write books about them. But we also asked them to include texts to cover the relevant literacy objectives for each year, using the 'skeleton' approach. The texts were of two kinds - written texts illustrating the language features children need to know, and 'visual texts' that would provide skeletons for children's own writing. Then we edited and edited to try and make sure it worked. I think it does (well, I would, wouldn't I?) And the books are beautifully designed and illustrated. They're selling like hot cakes too, so we reckon they must be good...