Module 4 Book Reviews: Informational Books

Destination: Space by Seymour Simon

1. Bibliography
Simon, Seymour. 2002. DESTINATION: SPACE. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children's Books. ISBN 0688162894.

2. Plot Summary
Seymour shares images and descriptions of various major space discoveries courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope.

3. Critical Analysis
The greatest assest to this nonfiction book is the comparisons Seymour uses to make the information accessible to the readers. He places the enormity and unfamiliarity of space into a context the reader can grasp. "[Saturn's] rings are mostly made of chunks of water ice, some as small as your finger, others as big as as house, that whirl around Saturn like swarms of tiny moons." Further in the text he explains another phenomenon this way: "What appears to be a bird's head, leaning over to snatch a tasty meal of insects, is another example of two galaxies colliding."
Where the book becomes confusing and bit bothersome its description of specific areas of the photographs. The reader would have a much easier time locating the points of interest if they were labeled directly on the photograph. The ease of reading the text is broken up as the reader tries to follow logic such as the this information on the photos of Mars: "The pictures were taken about six hours apart." The tricky part about this is that the pictures of Mars are not lined up in order, rather they are placed on the page with two photos on top and one photo centered directly beneath them. It takes some time to determine in which order the photos were taken, and it is not left-to-right, as the reader might first believe. The next bit of cumbersome direction concerns Supernove 1987A. The author discusses "three rings of glowing gas encircling the site of Supernova 1987A." In the photo only two rings are instantly noticeable. The location of the third ring is just an educated guess on the part of the reader.
This book would be accessible to a broader range of readers if the photographs were labeled by increasing the readability of the book. As it is, this book must be read through from beginning to end in order to obtain information, exluding the younger or less able reader who could extract information from even simply labeled photos.

4. Review Excerpts
BOOK MAGAZINE: "Spectacular photographs taken during the past decade by the Hubble Space Telescope make this a visually stunning introduction to outer space."
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: "Although this is not intended as an introduction to astronomy, the stunning photographs of planets, galaxies, and supernovas may inspire young readers to pick up a more comprehensive guide to the celestial features they've glimpsed here."

5. Connections
Utilize the following recently published books for exploration into the history of the Hubble Space Telescope and for additional photographs, both of space and of the telescope.
Carruthers, Margaret W. THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE. ISBN 0531163725.
Chrismer, Melanie. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE: POSTCARDS FROM SPACE. ISBN: 0766021351.
Scott, Elaine. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. ISBN 0786801476.