A while ago we won some books over at Playing By The Book, one of them was The Planet Gods. When we first got it Ebi-kun looked through it then it was put on the book shelf and not touched, I have come to learn not to worry about it and as I expected, a couple of weeks later I found him engrossed in it. Then he started talking about making a big fork, which totally threw me until I flicked through the book and found that Neptune had a trident, I forgot to take a photo of the trident he made and heaven only knows where it is now but since then he has been Saturn, Jupiter and now he is the god of Mars.
I think this book really captures the child's imagination, the illustrations are beautiful and the text is intelligent but not over the top, I love how something so scientific is introduced in such a beautiful artistic way.
I decided to get another book which was a bit more scientific to go with The Planet Gods, it took me a while to decide but I eventually opted for 11 Planets: a new view of the solar system, it is a National Geographic book so I expected the quality to be good, and I was not disappointed. Again the illustrations are beautiful, Ebi-kun describes this as the real planets and the other one as the artists planets.
Each planet gets a double page spread with a realistic looking illustrations and they are presented in order from the sun. It also includes the three dwarf planets and a couple of extra pages on comets and the such like. There is actually quite a lot of information of each page but the way it is broken down makes it very readable. As a kid I was never one for stars and planets, probably because we studied them in such a methodical and boring way but both my husband and I have been found with our noses stuck in these books :o)
My oldest daughter got turned on to mythology by reading this very same book. I love the stories and the illustrations are superb. She still refers to this book. Have Fun!! It really is a book you can't out grow.
ReplyDeleteHi! I have cards (with description of mythological gods and planets on it)that children match with styrofoam planets in my classroom. Photos are here:
ReplyDeletehttp://leptir-mojpribor.blogspot.com/2009/11/nazivi-planeta-imena-mitoloskih-bogova.html
I have some activities about planets and Universe here:
http://leptir-mojpribor.blogspot.com/search/label/Svemir
I have looked at that book before, thanks for your thoughts on it.
ReplyDeleteLeptir, there are some great ideas in there, I love the cards you made. I will posting about the planet mobile we made tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteOh how lovely to read this at that start of my week! It's just wonderful to see how a book can spark ideas and journeys :-) I can't wait to see the planet mobile (if you can tear yourself away from your new sewing machine to post that is!)
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