Space: The Whole Whizz-Bang Story

Gr 4–6—Beginning with the history of astronomy and the contributions made by the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Arabs to the understanding of the universe, this humorous and approachable overview of astronomy is illustrated with black-and-white cartoons. The author uses a conversational tone throughout to present information and text boxes to highlight the definitions of concepts such as light years, astronomy vs. astrology, and weight vs. mass. Although the science is solid, the information is marred slightly by participatory fill-in-the-blanks pages, such as a Planetary Sudoku and an "Astronomer Word Search" that asks readers to find words such as "heliocentric," "orbit," and "gravity." Moreover, with only a table of contents as a finding aid, this title is more an individual purchase than one for a library collection.—Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA