Meg Thacher

An outstanding, information-packed encyclopedia on all things in the sky for curious kids, in a big format. Despite the fact that I'm reviewing this book in 2020, it still seems up-to-the-minute, including recent missions like InSight at Mars, beautiful Cassini images from Saturn, VLA images of protoplanetary disks, and it even mentions Dragonfly being developed for its future mission to Titan. Images are well-selected, diagrams clear and colorful. Southern hemisphere and equatorial skygazing are included alongside the northern hemisphere. Activities are integrated into the factual text every few pages, and they're written so that even if a kid doesn't do the activity, just reading it will explain the point. Every page rewards attention. As with any book containing so many facts, I noticed errors here and there (like a picture caption swapping the names of Phobos and Deimos, or referring to Charon as a "captured" object); this book is otherwise so excellent that it deserves a second edition to take care of such minor errata. It does bother me that the sources of most images are not indicated, a general problem with children's books.… (altro)

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley and Storey Publishers.
Meg Thacher did an impressive job with the way the book is organized and the depth of information she provided! She excels at writing content that is understandable to the audience it was intended (9-14 years old) and is also appealing to adults.
The book is organized into the following sections; the sky, the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars and constellations. In the Appendix is information about dates of eclipses, meteor showers, buying binoculars and a thorough glossary of terms. She also includes in each chapter suggestions for activities like keeping a sky journal, supply lists for sky-gazing, the best times for sky-gazing etc.
As a homeschooling mom, I cannot say enough about this book. In addition to the valuable information covered in this book's text, she includes beautiful and relevant illustrations. My teenagers and my middle-school-aged son all loved reading this book. We plan to incorporate this book into our own homeschool curriculum. This book is a fantastic resource and belongs in every homeschool and school library. We will be referring to it often throughout our school year.… (altro)