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As any teacher can probably tell you, boys and books are not a fantastic combination. Give the average 10-year-old boy a choice between a book, a PlayStation, the internet, or an hour slumped in front of the telly watching Doctor Who, and the book is not likely to come top on the list. Add mobile phones, iPods, and all the other distractions of the modern world to the list, and books fly even further off the average boy’s radar.

Which isn’t good – because as everyone knows, literacy is a rather important skill. And it’s a rather important skill that seems to be under threat, especially among boys, and particularly among that almost exclusively male species known to teachers and parents as the “reluctant reader”.

Getting boys to read has probably never been very easy. When I was at school, a small minority of avid bookworms always had one or two books on the go, but most boys preferred to spend their free time in the great outdoors, climbing trees, kicking footballs, pulling girls’ hair, and so on. But despite the attractions of trees, footballs, and pigtails, my generation probably had a lot more time for reading than kids have today. When the weather was bad and the only three TV channels were showing boring rubbish (which was most of the time), I would quite happily hide in my room and lose myself in a Tintin adventure or rattling good novel – Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons was a memorable favourite. I wasn’t a bookworm, but I did read. And crucially, I read for pleasure.

And perhaps that’s the key to getting the reluctant reader more interested in books. To hold a child’s attention, a book needs to be as entertaining and engrossing as YouTube, Doctor Who, or an hour spent blasting zombies on a PlayStation. Which brings me neatly to the topic of Dorling Kindersley. I was already a fan of DK’s children’s books long before a letter arrived on my doormat inviting me to have a crack at writing about cars and science. While the books I enjoyed as a kid followed a simple formula of body-text interspersed with pictures, DK books pioneered a completely different format, with a blend of text and images working together in a interactive partnership – as visually dynamic and engaging as any Tintin book, yet full of bite-sized information.

As J.K. Rowling has proved, children’s books are far from dead, and good books don’t have to be foisted onto children. Get the formula right, and children will pick books up and become thoroughly immersed of their own volition. Rowling’s secret was her fantastic story-telling skills and her creation of an enchanted world into which escapists of all ages could disappear for hours. But while fiction books can capture the young imagination with ingenious plots and strong characters – effectively outcompeting films and TV dramas – nonfiction books compete on a very different stage. And nonfiction books face a double-edged sword: on one hand they have to compete against the internet and zany documentary shows like Brainiac; while on the other hand they have to shrug off the fusty image of educational school books.

It’s a formula that few publishers have managed to crack, but some have done it. The “Horrible History” series published by Scholastic hit the target by combining humour, human interest, madcap stories, and cartoon illustrations in an anarchic mix that proved to be a big hit. DK also hit the bullseye, but with a much more colourful, design-driven approach. In recent years the two strategies have begun to converge, with books like Can You Feel the Force, Buzz!, and now Car Science adding ever-increasing dollops of humour and fun to what was already a proven format.

Boys and girls have always loved fiction, but it’s probably true that male readers, especially those of the reluctant variety, have a greater leaning towards nonfiction. And as any parent knows, even the most unwilling reader will take an interest in books devoted to their favourite subject of the moment, whether that’s dinosaurs, insects, pirates, Sherman tanks, or the planet Mars.

Or cars – which is where I come in. A perennial favourite among boys of all ages, cars seem to have an enduring hold on the male imagination. Even from a very young age, many boys can spot an Aston Martin DB9 from 100 metres away from the rear, through driving rain, in semi-darkness, while travelling the opposite direction at 70 mph. And they can probably reel off how many pistons the engine deploys, and whether they’re arranged in a V8 or a flat six, and how much the Mark 3 costs with optional air-con and suede trim. So when Dorling Kindersley asked me to write Car Science, I knew this was a chance to produce not just a worthy science book but a book that even the most reluctant reader might pick up and read for pleasure. If they learned a bit of science and improved their reading skills a little, so much the better, but the key challenge for me was to create a book that would be enjoyed just as much as I enjoyed Swallows and Amazons all those years ago.

Perhaps it’s the greatest thing a children’s author can aspire to: to encourage children to see books as something to relish. I certainly enjoyed writing the book, and I hope the kids who read it – of whatever gender – will enjoy it.

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