I can tend to get a bit carried away when I review books. I love books and I want everyone else to love them too. Nevertheless, I am still confident in saying that in the ten years or so I’ve been reviewing at GeekDad, I’ve never reviewed a non-fiction book as perfectly formed as Exploring the Universe.
What Is Exploring The Universe?
Written by Isabel Thomas, with pictures by Sara Gillingham, Exploring the Universe is an infographic-style journey through the Solar System and beyond. There is so much information packed in here, from the beginnings of the universe to the properties of the planets and the composition of matter.
It’s broken down into 6 broad sections and includes an introduction, glossary, index, and an amazing section on astronomical data that is geek manna from heaven — or maybe manna from the Large Hadron Collider.
We have:
- Section 1: The View From Earth – What we can see from terra firma.
- Section 2: Near Earth Space – Earth, The Moon, Rockets and Orbits.
- Section 3: Our Solar System – The Planets, Asteroids, The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.
- Section 4: Stars – The Sun, Spectra, Stellar Nurseries. White Dwarfs and Supernovae.
- Section 5: Galaxies – The Milky Way, Radio Telescopes and Super Massive Black Holes.
- Section 6: The Universe – The Observable Universe, its origins and a Theory of Everything!
And that’s just the selected highlights. I could have chosen several more from each section, and they would have been just as exciting. Within each section, there are four types of entry.
- Objects and Structures – These provide the facts and figures that help you understand the objects’ place in space.
- Exploration – These entries show how humans have gathered knowledge about an object.
- Phenomena and Ideas – Provides essential background knowledge that underpins the universe.
- Technology – The instruments and tools used by scientists to find out about the skies above us.
It’s hard to put an age range on the book. It goes into quite some depth on a host of topics, such as Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams, Red Shift, and Up and Down Quarks. Yet, its vibrant pictures and simple format mean that it will entice younger space enthusiasts to pore over it, be inspired and learn what they can. It’s a book that can grow their knowledge as their understanding develops.
Why Read Exploring The Universe?
It’s hard to overstate how much I love this book. Honestly, it could have been made for me. There is even a Periodic Table in the “Matter” section that shows where in the universe each element was formed. This may well be my favourite diagram of all time. I loved the data section at the end of the book, too.
Like many children, I loved astronomy and Space when I was growing up, but once adulthood took over and my own children arrived, I forgot the joy of looking upwards. Exploring the Universe reminds us the wonder of what is above our heads. It shows us how much we’ve learned and how much there is still to learn.
Sara Gillingham’s gorgeous illustrations are the perfect foil for Isabel Thomas’s flawless text. Never has the universe been more enticing. Christmas is not far around the corner, and if you’re looking for a gift for a young (or indeed old) Space enthusiast, you cannot go wrong with Exploring the Universe.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Exploring the Universe, you can do so here in the US and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
Fonte: GeekDad - Leia mais