The Kingfisher Facts and Records Book of Space
By Clive Gifford
Kingfisher pound;10.99. TES Direct pound;10.49
The Giant Book of Space
By John Farndon
AladdinWatts pound;11.99. TES Direct pound;9.99 (020 8324 5119 99p pamp;p per order)
Two more publications are launched into the crowded orbit of space books for children at the upper primarylower secondary level. Both cover the solar system, deep space, skywatching and spaceflight, but while one is a star, the other is lost in space.
The Kingfisher Facts and Records Book of Space is appealing. Its lively spreads are dashed with exciting graphics and bold text, while information bytes are carried by web-style buttons and database squares. The content is equally imaginative and ambitious.
The cover of The Giant Book of Space holds promise but the pages are regimented and its coverage is comparatively superficial. There are some impressive graphics but they act merely as secondary illustration rather than driving the pages.
Dennis Ashton is director of the Stardome Mobile Planetarium, Sheffield
A longer version of this review appears in this week’s TES
