Rocket Science for the Rest of Us

Gr 8 Up—This eye-catching text, divided into four color-coded sections, introduces readers to the universe, space exploration, scientific theories, and the supersmall stuff that makes up the universe. The design is useful: the name of each section appears on the top left of each spread, and the title of the current entry appears on the top right. The coverage is broad (including everything from the status of Pluto as a planet to how we keep time to X-ray crystallography) and will keep readers engaged. The explanations are clear, even for challenging subjects, and the author often lightens the tone with humorous asides and puns. For instance, he likens the iron-rich internal structure of Mercury to "a Ferrero Rocher chocolate…or Ferrous Rocher" and uses the concept of Elvis Presley and his fans to describe the way that particles gather around the Higgs boson. The layout is bright and image-filled. Often, numbered images are used to help elucidate complex processes, such as how the European Space Agency's comet chaser probe Rosetta targeted its prey. Most of the spreads feature white text on a black background. Key phrases appear in boldface text. (Some of the smaller white text featured in annotations is difficult to read.) Boxed areas featuring text on nonwhite backgrounds are used to introduce and highlight concepts.