Orion, the Hunter

Children's Literature - Judy Katsh

The constellation Orion has long fascinated sky watchers. Its brightness in the winter sky and its easy to spot configuration make it popular with ordinary sky fans. Astronomers, too, have long been interested in Orion, in part because of the star nursery apparently contained within its borders. This dramatic photo essay describes Orion's legacy, from its origin in myth and legend to its current link to the birth of the Universe, thanks to recent discoveries made by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope. It will find excited readers among fans and scientists alike.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-Though at first glance a book about a single constellation may seem too narrowly focused for most collections, in fact the subject isn't narrow at all; in astronomical terms, at least, Orion lies in a busy part of the sky, and recent observations have greatly enhanced our knowledge of what's going on there. In a format that will be familiar to readers of Seymour Simon's planet books-blocks of large-print text surrounded by generous margins opposite big, color-enhanced space photos-Apfel describes and speculates about phenomena including supergiants, nebulae, and the Orionid meteor shower in a clear, formal way. Her style is nontechnical but free of vague generalities. As in Voyager to the Planets (Clarion, 1991), she delivers a reliable digest of up-to-date information, and makes remote cosmic events comprehensible to the veriest novice.-John Peters, New York Public Library

Susan Dove Lempke

The constellation Orion provides ample material for discussing astronomy since it includes the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, and the blue-white giant star Rigel. Apfel helps readers discern the shape of the constellation by showing them its features one at a time--Orion's belt, club, legs, and so on. Much of the book centers on the two nebulae, the way stars are created there, and the types of telescopes used to see them. Large pages allow the spectacular photographs, which are supplemented by diagrams, to be fully appreciated. Readers looking for an elaboration of the Orion myth will need to look elsewhere, but these are small quibbles with an otherwise fine title.