Gravity: The Universal Force

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-- Series entries that explain scientific concepts by examining their development throughout history. In Atoms , the ``torturously slow process'' involved in the growth of atomic knowledge starts with Democritus and continues through the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Biel emphasizes individual scientists, showing how they expanded on prior discoveries to achieve breakthroughs. This approach is useful, but readers looking for basic facts about atoms and their uses may get lost trying to follow the cast of historical figures and their theories. Gravity follows a similar chronological pattern. Discoveries of Kepler and Newton are discussed, as are modern concepts such as spaceflight and black holes. The dry, formal style of both books is service-able, but unlikely to interest readers not already enthusiastic about the topics. Both volumes include simple, captioned diagrams to help clarify difficult concepts. Photos or portraits of most of the significant figures are included, and full-color photos appear in the second half of each volume. Lists of relevant discoveries and their dates appear in the introductions, but the timelines are disproportionate and thus midleading. Asimov's ``How Did We Find Out About . . .'' books (Walker) use a similar historical focus and are livelier than this series, although the Asimov volume on atoms is less comprehensive. For a straightforward explanation of what atoms are and what they can do, Berger's Our Atomic World (Watts, 1989) works well. Gravity may be the more useful of the two titles simply because there is little material available on the subject for this age level. --Steven Engelfried, Pleasanton Lib . , CA