Discover the Planets

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Look up. Look waaaay up. That’s the theme of these Level 3 readers
(which means that the books are meant for children to read alone) about
outer space. Like other readers at this level, these volumes feature
prose that is simple yet highly informative.

In Discover Space, Nicolson gives the reader an up-to-date look at what
we know about the universe in six chapters: “Looking at Space from
Earth,” “Our Solar System and Galaxy,” “Astronauts in Space,”
“Exploring the Moon,” “Exploring Other Planets in Our Solar
System,” and “Exploring Space in the Future.” In Discover the
Planets, there are 10 chapters: one for each planet in our solar system
and a concluding chapter, “Why Do We Study the Planets?” In both
books, each chapter is broken down into short, pithy sections that
explain the chapter’s subject in detail. When Nicolson comes across a
topic that may be hard for young minds to easily grasp, she often uses a
fun activity or metaphor to help explain it. For example, to explain how
outer space is not really that far away, she tells readers that if they
could climb into the family car and somehow drive straight up away from
Earth at a highway speed of 120 kph, they would be in outer space in
less than two hours.

The text is illustrated with colour photographs and eye-catching
illustrations by Bill Slavin. Both these books are excellent references
for young readers interested in space and the solar system. Highly
recommended.