520.3

Eyewitness Universe is a great informational book. This book is great for its text features and its layout. Throughout the book, there are several text features including charts, maps, and pictures. These features give the reader a clear look at what is being explained in the text. For example, on the page explaining the earth there is a great diagram of the different layers of the earths' interior. This book also stands out due to its layout. Every page is a different subtopic under the larger topic of "the universe". This layout allows the book to teach a large amount of information in manageable doses. One page is entirely about the sun while another page is about orbits. The main idea of this book is to inform about the universe. ( )

It is an Eyewitness book filled with amazing photographs of space, planets, stars, and more. It is also full of awesome facts and concepts, explained in very short paragraphs, and accompanied by pictures. It explores the universe and explains its origins, talks about earth and our moon, compares the planets, and talks about stars, asteroids, meteors, and other elements found in space. It talks a lot about how the universe works, and gives lots of great illustrations and models to help reinforce concepts. Of course as teachers we have to be careful to explain models so that kids do not get confused over the representation vs. the reality of a concept. This is true in the book of lines used to show orbit, and cut-away sections of planets that show the insides. It also has little features in the bottom right hand corner of many pages that talk about a famous astronomer or someone who contributed greatly to the field of astronomy, such as Galileo.
I really like this book because it strongly connects to the science process skills of inference, classification, and observation. The science content is very accurate, and the book would be a great resource to kids in grades 4-5. I think that the information in the book is a little more advanced, so that’s why I picked those grades. I would probably use this in my classroom along with a lesson on space such as the one that Dr. Parnin led us through in Q200, where we explored the effect of positioning on orbit placement. It was called “Moon on a Stick” and helped to model the concept of orbit, without the use of lines, which can be confusing to kids. ( )

As with all Eyewitness Books by Dorling Kindersley, Universe has excellent photographs and captions, and there is no need to read it from front to back cover. Students can flip through the book and read about planets, meteors, stars, galaxies and black holes. These Eyewitness books are ever popular.