(2) 4-6 Dragonships series. Mars-born Lunar Jones is a salvager on the dying planet, trying to find enough old technology to sell to keep his fellow orphans fed. When rival scrappers attempt to kill him to steal his latest find, he flees into the forbidden military zone and discovers a tunnel that leads to a cave containing a young dragon. The planet has been without one since humanity killed Mars's "king-dragon," Ares, a century before, but the dragons of Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos still drive the spaceships that cross the galaxy. A new dragon would be a game-changer for the struggling colony, and the military wants to eliminate Lunar to keep his discovery a secret. The dragon -- Dread -- intervenes: he has chosen the fearless Lunar as his dragoon, the point person to lead his crew and his ship. So begins Lunar's training to captain a starship. With echoes of influences as diverse as Orson Scott Card and Anne McCaffrey, this innovative adventure effortlessly draws readers into Lunar's predicament. The story line provides a rich ground for interpersonal rivalries and loyalties among the other candidates for dragoon, while the action builds realistically from training exercises to real-life emergencies as the dragons' political conflicts become deadly. The pages turn so quickly that readers will get to the end almost without realizing it -- then wait eagerly for a sequel.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(2) K-3 The James Webb Space Telescope is the latest "great observatory" collecting data on distant galaxies and stars from a position orbiting Earth. Slade skillfully explains NASA's decades-long and at times precarious process of designing, building, launching, and operating the telescope. The focus is mainly on the technical aspects of the engineering project, but there is also helpful consideration of the political and financial costs of keeping a complex technology project aloft. Abundant photographs of the people, machines, and facilities involved illustrate the telescope, with its distinctive hexagonal mirrors, under construction; the rocket launch into orbit; and then the payoff: crisp, striking images that show never-before-seen objects and give new details about familiar stars and nebulae. Excellent, in-depth captions provide valuable information, in particular when describing which data is accessed to produce each space image. The back matter provides schematics, information about historical space telescopes, and resources for further reading.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(3) 4-6 Prominent objects from our galaxy are assigned superlatives like "strangest," "largest," "brightest," and "weirdest" to introduce readers to nebulae, exoplanets, stars, and star clusters. The chapters then delve into deeper scientific discussions such as the formation of the universe, discovery of exoplanets, and contributions of prominent astronomers. Images include artistic renditions of distant planetary surfaces, as well as colorful telescope images. Reading list, websites. Ind.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Brendan Kearney. Goggle-eyed planets, asteroids, galaxies, and spacecraft (plus a few aliens traveling among them) on recto pages face paragraph-length (sometimes silly) presentations of interesting information about each featured item. The "Solar System" section focuses on figures (e.g., a planet's diameter, distance from the sun, length of orbit); "Galaxies" covers types and origins of galaxies and nebulae; and “Exploring Space” introduces satellites, robot rovers, and the ISS. Back matter with more straightforward information would have been useful.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(4) K-3 Galaxies presents a guide to our universe of stars and galaxies and includes a rudimentary history of astronomy and telescopes. Planets introduces each planet and the basic concepts of planetary motion. While these two lightly updated editions feature Gibbons's inviting, scientifically rigorous illustrations, two depictions of the solar system in Galaxies still show the outdated nine-planet model. Review covers these titles: Galaxies, Galaxies! and The Planets.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Ana Djordjevic. Each double-page spread features a planet, asteroid, nebula, or other astronomical object (plus the ISS and the Webb Space Telescope), in order of its distance from Earth. A list of stats for each covers size, weight, surface temperature, and other attributes. Large illustrations with a retro aesthetic, diagrams, and text boxes provide additional information for a browsable, if somewhat crowded, presentation. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(3) 4-6 Checkerboard Library: Exploring Our Universe series. Elementary facts about bodies in the solar system and throughout the universe are portioned out across multiple slim volumes. Each book includes broad descriptions of the featured astronomical topic; historical and current thinking about scientific features and composition; and the telescopes, probes, and spacecraft used to investigate them. Captioned photographs, diagrams, and sidebars effectively supplement the satisfactory texts. Glos., ind. Review covers these Checkerboard Library: Exploring Our Universe titles: The Moon, Galaxies, The Sun, The Amazing Universe, Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids, Planets, and Stars.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(3) 4-6 Checkerboard Library: Exploring Our Universe series. Elementary facts about bodies in the solar system and throughout the universe are portioned out across multiple slim volumes. Each book includes broad descriptions of the featured astronomical topic; historical and current thinking about scientific features and composition; and the telescopes, probes, and spacecraft used to investigate them. Captioned photographs, diagrams, and sidebars effectively supplement the satisfactory texts. Glos., ind. Review covers these Checkerboard Library: Exploring Our Universe titles: The Moon, Galaxies, The Sun, The Amazing Universe, Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids, Planets, and Stars.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(4) K-3 Super SandCastle: Out of This World series. Each somewhat scattered volume presents facts and definitions that cover the basics of astronomy within and beyond the solar system, including the formation of the universe. Stargazing includes profiles of astronomers throughout history and the technologies of astronomical observation. Brightly colored images of planets, moons, galaxies, etc., shine from black backgrounds. Each book includes a quiz. Glos. Review covers these Super SandCastle: Out of this World titles: Moons, Planets, The Universe, and Stargazing.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(4) K-3 Space series. Factual statements about the solar system and outlying bodies in the universe are accompanied by diagrams and high-quality images of planets, stars, moons, and spacecraft. The series' coverage is uneven. For example, each planet receives just two pages in a book, while the moon and sun are treated more in-depth in full volumes. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers the following Space titles: Asteroids and Comets, Galaxies and Stars, Our Moon, Our Sun, Planets Far From Earth, and Planets Near Earth.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(4) K-3 Across the Universe series. Information about each of these objects in the universe, along with the tools scientists use to investigate them, are presented in odd layouts that appropriate the iconography of a mobile app or website. More impressive are the excellent images of galaxies, stars, and planetary bodies presented on dark backgrounds. Each book also contains an activity; their quality varies. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers the following Across the Universe titles: Asteroids, Comets, Galaxies, Moons, Planets, and The Sun.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford