The Cave Explorer

*Winner of the Peters Children's Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2026*

Explore the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux and the story of the boy and his dog who rediscovered them in this stunningly illustrated fact-filled book for curious young readers.

Have you ever wondered what life was like for the human beings who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago? What stories did they tell one another? What stories would they want to tell us?

One day in 1940, a young boy named Marcel Ravidat was walking his dog, Robot, near his home in southwestern France. When Robot found a strange hole near an upturned tree, Marcel and his friends rushed in to explore and find some hidden treasure. But the treasure they found was like nothing they had ever expected – prehistoric paintings and carvings that covered the walls of an underground cave, and that told the story of the palaeolithic people that had once called this place home.

This rediscovered cave was an important historical find, and the artefacts and paintings inside helped archaeologists and anthropologists piece together what life must have been like for humans living hundreds of thousands of years ago. Little did Marcel know that the mystery of why these paintings were created and what stories the artists were depicting would continue to capture our imaginations as we still debate their meaning today.

Beautifully illustrated by winner of the Klaus Flugge Prize 2024, Kate Winter, with incredible panoramic fold-out pages, this is a book to treasure and to read again and again, perfect for all fans of natural history and curious young explorers.

'[An] exceptional picture book for readers of all ages [...] A treasure.' – The Times