Customer Reviews

Janice VanCleave's Constellations for Every Kid: Easy Activities that Make Learning Science Fun (Science for Every Kid Series)

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My 7 year old daughter and I have had a great time with Constellations For Every Kid. Each chapter provides a "bite size" chunk of information, a stargazing opportunity, questions to reinforce what was taught, and an astronomy-related activity. Other strong points include simple but quality illustrations and helpful pronunciation guides. The book covers topics like the general motion of the sky, precession, ecliptic, variable stars, spectral types, folklore, as well as the names of the stars and consteallations clearly, with enough depth to be interesting but not so much detail as to be overwhelming. In short, My daughter may not remember all the specifics but she's getting the basic ideas and we're having fun in the process.

Janice VanCleave's "Constellations For Every Kid" is one of the books I used to teach an astronomy unit to the boys I help homeschool. It is quite limited in its scope -- containing only the northern constellations and no complete star maps -- but is very useful for basic constellation identification. I used it mostly as a source of seasonal star maps for the boys to copy. It also helpfully identifies some key stars in various constellations, and provides tips for finding various constellations once the positions of others are known.

However, this is about all the book is good for. The explanations of various phenomena are extremely limited, VanCleave provides none of the legends behind the constellations, and her suggested questions and activities are often impractical or pointless. (She also turned Saggitarius into some unholy thing she dubbed 'The Teapot.' Sheesh.) The book wavers between being a teacher's handbook and a student's textbook -- and fills neither purpose very well.

In other words, don't buy it. Skim through it and take any useful activities and explanations, but don't be too disappointed if you come away with only a few ideas.

I like this book because it gives only a couple important concepts in each chapter, therefore, makes it easier to learn without feeling overwhelmed. I also like how some important concepts are explained using concrete examples. For instance, the concept of "parallax (the apparent shift in position of an object when viewed from different places)" is explained in such a way that everyone can easily relates to "To understand ......palce your thumb near your nose, then look at it, closing one eye at a time. Your thumb seems to jump from side to side as you see a different background behind it. Stars, like your thumb, seem to move when viewed from differt positions."

I agree with other reviews that a brief story about each constellation will better fit the title of this book.

This book is almost entirely about finding specific constellations in the sky. If that's what you want, then it's for you. It is not about constellations in general, nor does it have star stories. It only has a few "activities." I bought it to use in my classroom, but haven't touched it. I have to wonder why I bought it, because I have the same opinion of Janice VanCleave's books....they look good, but there isn't all that much substance. I just had a weak moment! This one is worse than usual.