The Story of Astronomy and Space is a nonfiction book written by Louie Stowell and Peter Allen, which describes the wonders of the universe, and is intended for a young audience. The Story... is divided into eight different chapters, each one focusing on a different part of space or astronomy.
The first few chapters focus on the history of astronomy and how it developed, while the later chapters delve into more details on the stars, the universe, modern Astronomy and the technology that comes with it and more.
The Story of Astronomy and Space is quite well written. It manages to convey complex concepts and facts to the intended audience very well. It is both humorous and serious at the same time. The main texts are usually only factual, but the numerous asides are often jam-packed with funny comics and gags. I particularly enjoyed a reference too Shakespeare's Hamlet that you just cannot avoid chuckling at.
In terms of facts, this book covers a wide range of subjects. It doesn't actually go into much detail about the actual history or story of how astronomy developed (contrary to the title), but it does have a good amount of facts about the planets and the Sun. As I'm very interested in space and astronomy, most of the concepts and facts were not new, but I liked the easy layout and description that the authors use to describe them. The appendices at the end include some extra facts, a time line of astronomy and a star map for the wannabe star gazer, which was a nice touch.
I don't know if there is more than one edition of the book, but the one I received contained some really lovely illustrations and pictures. Some of the drawings are cartoony, but they don't feel out of place. The pictures are between mediocre and underwhelming. They didn't really take my breath away like some pictures do, but they still are decent enough, and help to understand the concepts Stowell and Allen are describing. In a way The Story of Astronomy and Space reminds me of the Horrible Histories series in that it tries to describe a certain subject to children, while keeping their attention with gags and comics. I will say that Stowell and Allen found a much better mix of humor and facts than the Horrible Histories.
Unfortunately, while The Story of Astronomy and Space succeeds in describing the concepts that it introduces, it leaves many out. While any book of this size is going to have to pick and choose, I thought that the information on anything outside of our solar system was very lacking. In some places this book feels dumbed down for children, something that I really don't like. I felt that Stowell and Allen wanted to cover a lot more than they finally managed to. It almost feels as if the editor decided it was too long and cut a few chapters away. Another minor gripe of mine is that the time line at the end of the book is extremely difficult to read, and was very badly layed out, which was very annoying.
Overall, The Story of Astronomy and Space is an excellent, if simplistic introduction to the wonders of the Universe. It's certainly not the best book on the subject, but it does manage to answer most of the questions it asks reasonably well. I'd recommend that you use this book as an introduction, and then find a more detailed work on the subject, if want some more.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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