Planets

Children's Literature

The word planet comes from the Greek word that means wanderer. As the ancients studied the sky, they saw that some objects the sky moved. They are the planets. There are nine in our solar system. Most to the planets are named after Roman and Greek gods; Mars, the god of war; Venus, the goddess of love and beauty; Jupiter, king of the gods; Saturn, the god of farming; Uranus, the god of the sky; Neptune, the god of the sea; and Pluto, the god of the underworld. The word for Earth comes from the English word meaning ground or soil. Four of the planets are called terrestrial planets because they consist mainly of rock. The Earth is one of the terrestrial planets. Four others are known as the gas giants because the atmospheres of the planets are thousands of miles thick. Pluto, the remaining planet, is made up of rock and ice. This book is one of the "Science Matters" series for young elementary school students. A standardized format features a fact sheet for the volume topic, biographies of scientists, a map of the solar system and a quiz to review information presented in the book. There are also web links and a glossary. These books are nicely illustrated, primarily with photographs, and the information is well organized for this age group. 2003, Weigl Publishers, Ages 5 to 9.
—Kristin Harris

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-Not to be confused with the more inclusive Grolier Educational series of the same name (2002), these volumes aim to give young readers a broad view of astronomy's major tools and objects of study. They don't do it very well. The books are organized along similar lines, mingle blocks of text in different typefaces with a mix of color photos and graphics, and close with perfunctory boilerplate back matter. In all three, basic information is offered in ways that range from contradictory ("Most astronomers believe the Moon has no water. Still, some think the Moon's north and south poles have ice" [Moon]) to confusing (Pluto's "atmosphere is lost as quickly as it is created" [Planets]) to simplistic ("The mass of some stars can be about 10 times greater than the Sun" [Stars]). Pass these up in favor of relevant volumes in the "Starting with Space" series (Kids Can), Gail Gibbons's titles, or recent "True Book" (Children's) offerings.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.