Although many studies devoted to the information behaviour of young people have drawn attention to youngsters' tendency to rely heavily on information sources within the home on account of their ready accessibility, work addressing in detail the exploitation of non-fiction books in these domestic settings is rare. This article draws on the findings of a wide-ranging qualitative research project conducted in the north-east of England with four to 18-year-olds to investigate, in particular, the nature of the volumes within home libraries that are consulted, the circumstances in which they are used, youngsters' attitudes to the books they employ and the problems that they encounter when exploiting them. The article closes by assessing the implications of the findings, especially for the design of information materials and for libraries.