Voyager

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-- The Voyager spacecraft program to visit the outer planets, from design to departure from the solar system, is described in a way that makes it sound like an achievement of real people, the sort of thing that kids today might really be able to grow up to do. Both design limitations and mechanical failures are seen as problems to be solved, and the joys of discovery as worthy rewards for solutions. The text is interspersed with full-color photos of the spacecraft and what they encountered, not to the extent of the books on the individual planets by Seymour Simon, but enough to keep things moving. Voyagers 1 & 2: Robots in Space (Childrens, 1987) by Ruth Radlauer and Carolynn Young, written before Voyager 2' s encounter with Neptune, contains more diagrams, but has a much less unified and enjoyable text. --Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Lib ., NY