Grade 4-6-Seventeen short chapters filled with full-color drawings and photographs take readers from a discussion of the evolution of life on Earth to Project SETI, with stops along the way to speculate on the form extraterrestrial life might take. The text consists primarily of a series of disjointed captions for the numerous illustrations, making it difficult to glean any solid information from the presentation. The discussion of life on the planet "Peg" and its moon is not clearly labeled as speculation, and the unwary may easily be misled. The DK signature format is a popular one, but both researchers and browsers will be much better served by titles such as Dennis Fradin's Searching for Alien Life (21st Century Bks., 1997) and Isaac Asimov's Aliens and Extraterrestrials (Gareth Stevens, 1995), which present a lot more information in a less-glitzy format.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4^-7. Does intelligent life exist beyond our planet? This visually exciting examination looks at both the myth and the science related to the question. The authors, both British science writers, describe what alien life-forms might look like, how we might communicate with them, and the impact the discovery of extrasolar planets has had on the development of scientific equipment. The book is organized into 17 appealing photo-spreads, comprising color photographs, detailed captions, and boxed insets that contain information about a scientist or about a historic scientific event, or suggested activities for would-be scientists. The inclusion of a "count the alien civilizations" foldout board game is a bonus. Although serious researchers will need to look elsewhere for more complete information, this will attract young astronomers and mathematicians as well as browsers older than the target audience. Mary Romano Marks
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