Astronomy (Science and Its Secrets) (English and French Edition)

Unknown Author

ISBN 10: 0817230807 ISBN 13: 9780817230807

Publisher: Heinemann/Raintree

Synopsis

Employing a question-and-answer format, this illustrated guide to astronomy features a wide-ranging collection of facts about the sun, moon, stars, planets, galaxies, and other celestial bodies

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)

From School Library Journal:

ea. vol: diags. illus. photogs. glossary. index. (Science and its Secrets Series). CIP. Raintree. 1988. PLB $13.99. Grade 3-5 Written in a question-and-answer format, these texts are stilted and the writing confusing and/or dull. The answers given are often buried in the text, and many are either unclear or overly long and involved. Archaelogy covers Europe and the Middle East, with very little on South and Central America. It treats archaeology as treasure hunting instead of scientific work to discover how ancient people lived. Hackwell's Digging into the Past (Scribners, 1986) provides an excellent overview, as well as a description of the serious nature of reconstructing the past and what it is like to be an archaeologist. Archaeology (Childrens, 1983) by Dennis B. Fradin, written for very young readers, gives a better definition and overview. In Astronomy, a detailed description and explanation of why observatories are built on mountain tops is given when the simple answerthe air is thinner with better visibilitywould suffice. The radio waves of stars are described and the fact that we study them, but the importance of this study is never discussed. Many definitions are not scientific in even a basic description of a natural phenomenon. The definition of thunder in Weather is: ``air is jolted and this jolt creates a great noise,'' while in David Lambert's Weather and Its Work (Facts on File, 1985), the disturbance of the air which results from lightning and causes thunder is described and clarified. The rainbow is described as a product of diffraction, yet other texts define it as refractive dispersal. Mistakes also occur in the arrangement of the text itself. Frances E. Millhouser, Arlington County Department of Libraries, Va.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Heinemann/Raintree
• ISBN 10: 0817230807
• ISBN 13: 9780817230807
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 63