Ken Croswell

If you already get all the jokes on "Big Bang Theory," you don't need this book. If you've always secretly wondered what a neutron star is, or never understood the difference between a nova and a supernova, this is the book you want. A children's book is *always* what you want if you're a chronological grownup and you need to learn something. Unlike nonfiction for adults, children's books assume you don't know anything about the given subject, and they're really nice about it.

For the show more record, this isn't a picture book in the classic sense. It has some serious page-count, and a way-lot of text on every page. show less

This most compelling aspect of this text are its beautiful photographs of outer space. It's difficult to find a quality text with images of other planets' moons, such as Triton, and this book delivers. My students loved the dramatic colors of the images. The text about each planet is accurate and relatively concise; difficult scientific language is kept to a minimum. At the same time, Croswell does not "talk down" to young learners. This book gave me a considerable amount of background show more knowledge necessary to teach a unit on the Solar System to first grade. I read chunks of the text to my first grade students; it was very dense and wordy at times, so I found myself paraphrasing. The data tables and facts in the back would be more interesting and helpful to older learners. I was disappointed about the absence of a glossary and source page, which is why this text did not receive 5 stars. Overall, this is a good book, and I would use it again. show less

Readers may be disappointed with the quality and selection of sky images; they are not the arresting pictures that many may be familiar with. However, they are practical in supporting the books effort to aid in sky gazing. The information about what time and where in the sky to look for a constellation is helpful and clearly accessible. The text about each constellation can be a bit patronizing in tone at times. However, the astronomical information is presented in a clear, easy and show more interesting manner. The additional mythology behind the names of the constellation is also welcome. A glossary at the end would have been helpful. show less

Excellent fresh account of current cosmological knowledge and the conflicts involved in arriving at it.