Dava does it again. She is a very together writer and I love what she does with The Planets. She organizes the history of our growing knowledge of our solar system in a simple and loving manner. Precious at times, the book is very readable, moves quickly, and delivers a satisfying reward. I like what she does in writing some of the chapters from unusual perspectives - she doesn't quite pull it off but I applaud the effort.

Top-notch.

:)

As a 5th and 6th grade science teacher, I found this book wonderful. It is filled with wonderful factual information, told in a unique and fun way, and provided me with great ideas for use in my classroom, through its creative forms telling the history of our solar system. I am definitely getting other books by this author. ( )

A good book to learn more about our neighbor planets, but I did find it dry at times. ( )

The Planets is an interesting take on scientific writings, unlike the familiar popular science books, which(in most cases) give a somewhat tedious and sketchy outline of a certain topic, this book, although following the popular science books in being untechnical is, on the other hand, of an uncommon style and format, where Sobel introduces a fictional letter in one place, to an account of the autobiography of a martian sample. Each chapter stands for the 'story' of a certain body in the solar system(the planets, the moon, the sun), touching on the history, music, astrology, shakespeare and, of course, science. And by that, this book provides a worthwhile read even for those whose grasp of the science is beyond the scope of this book, or rather, as is evident from this book, a true appreciation of the heavenly bodies compels one to admire how humans have viewed and interacted with objects whose distance, sheer size and beauty are truely astronomical! ( )

Dava Sobel offers interesting takes on the familiar objects in the night sky. Each planets occupies a cultural niche in society and she explores them all. From the allusions to Venus's beauty to the discovery of Neptune, she develops very apt portraits of each of the planets. There is also a fair amount of science and geology in each chapter, but she tries very hard not to make the planets as cold as they seem to be. If you don't want to go out and buy a telescope after reading this book, stick with Grisham and Koontz. ( )