Planets, Moons and Stars: Take-Along Guide (Take Along Guides)
Grade 4-5-This introduction to the solar system's larger elements, plus 13 constellations visible from the northern hemisphere, ends with several blank pages that children are urged to fill with a sky map. This would render the book a chancy purchase for libraries, even if it weren't stocked with factual errors and awkward writing-which it is. Along with declaring that "The sun is the most important star in our solar system," for instance, or explaining lunar phases with, "This happens because the amount of sunlight shining onto the moon changes from day to day," Evert offers without comment conflicting versions of the mythological hunter Orion's death in her descriptions of Canis Major and Scorpius, and envisions Queen Cassiopeia "sitting vainly on her throne." The small painted illustrations combine globby, unlabeled star maps with group views of planets and moons, likewise unlabeled. Budding stargazers will be better served by a plethora of more helpful, accurate guides, from H. A. Rey's classic Find the Constellations (Houghton, 1976) to My First Pocket Guide: Constellations (National Geographic, 2002).John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.