The Glow-In-the-dark Night Sky Book
Grade 3 Up What at first glance seems a perfect gimmick turns out to have definite flaws in execution. Two pages of text clearly explain how to make the star maps in the book glow and how readers can orient themselves with the book outside at night. One page lists brief explanations of constellation names. The rest consists of sky maps for eight times a year in the northern hemisphere, each shown in two views: a simple glowing schematic of five or six constellations with reference points, and the same glowing points against a background of constellation pictures and non-glowing stars. Unfortunately, the quest for clear, uncluttered star maps has led to the presentation of alternate constellations on succeeding pages. Thus, Cepheus appears on the early fall map, the combined constellation Andromeda/Pegasus on the late fall map, and Cassiopeia on the early winter map. As these are adjacent constellations, all visible all three times, this makes their relative positions hard to see. The endpapers give more nearly complete maps, but omit one star of the Summer Triangle, one of the reference points promised in the text. Relative brightness of the stars is represented by sizes of the glowing dots, but dim stars are likely to look more impressive on the page than in the sky. This is an attractive book: oversize, full-color, with astronomical page decorations. It's bound to be popular, but most libraries will want it only as a companion to a more complete introduction to the sky, such as Franklyn Branley's Star Guide (Crowell, 1987). Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Library, N.Y.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.