Visual Encyclopedia of Science

A thorough overview provides thousands of scientific facts divided into four distinct subject areas--The Living World, The Planet Earth, Stars and Planets, and Science and Technology--and includes colorful charts, diagrams, and illustrations.

This overview for readers ages 9-13 covers a wide variety of topics, with sections on the planet Earth, the living world, stars and planets, and technology. Written by popular-science writers, each section covers several topics in a format for intermediate and middle-school students. The book relies heavily on visuals, mostly well-labeled color drawings. Maps, cutaway diagrams, and charts are also included. Occasional photographs, many too small in which to see details, are included. Topics where photographs would be useful, such as Apollo 11's moon landing, are represented by drawings.

Most topics are covered on a two-page spread with very little white space. These pages are filled with illustrations and boxed areas that contain vital statistics or factoids on the topic. Brief text is placed wherever there is space. Some text goes across a page, other text goes down, and sometimes it is printed in three-column format. Sizes of illustrations also seem based on available space, and unrealistic size comparisons, such as leaves much larger than adjacent trees, will lead to confusion for young readers.

Some information is incomplete for the sake of simplicity and reading level of younger users. However, readers might want to know that the illustration of "Australian's most famous building" is the Sydney Opera House. Readers will be fascinated by some of the material offered. In the pages on life in space, they will get answers to questions about how the astronauts eat, go to the bathroom, and move about outside of their spacecraft. They will also enjoy browsing the chronology of inventions, which begins with pottery in 7000 B.C. and ends with the Macintosh computer in 1984. The index indicates illustrations by using italics, but these page numbers are difficult to discern from the regular type used for text references.

Young people will enjoy browsing through this volume, but serious students will not find enough depth on a particular topic to hold their interest or satisfy their needs. Libraries would better serve their patrons with titles covering individual fields of science or specific topics within those fields. This book's value will be in the home or in the circulating collection.