The Universe: A Fun Picture Book About Space, Stars, and Galaxies for Children (Ages 6-10)

by Seymour Simon

Imagine the biggest thing you can think of—now imagine something bigger that hasn't even stopped growing. That is the universe. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, though enormous, is a tiny speck among the 100 billion galaxies containing nebulas, planets, "space pods," billions of stars, and black holes that fill the cosmos. New stars, planets, and galaxies continue to form as the universe expands. Award-winning science writer Seymour Simon brings you deep into the universe to explore this immense topic.  This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 6 to 8. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children. Seymour Simon knows how to explain science to kids and make it fun. He was a teacher for more than twenty years, has written more than 250 books, and has won multiple awards. This book includes an author's note, glossary, and index and supports the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Seymour Simon, whom the NY Times called "the dean of [children's science:] writers," is the author of more than 250 highly acclaimed science books (many of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association).

Seymour Simon uses his website, SeymourSimon.com, to provide free downloads of a wealth of materials for educators, homeschoolers and parents to use with his books, including 4-page Teacher Guides for all 26 of his Collins/Smithsonian photo essay books. The site provides multiple resources for kids writing book reports or wanting to explore the online Science Dictionary, and also features the Seymour Science blog highlighting current science news. Educators and families are encouraged to sign up to receive the monthly newsletter from SeymourSimon.com to stay abreast of the latest materials that Seymour Simon is introducing to enrich the reading experience.

He taught science and creative writing in elementary and secondary schools and was chair of the science department at a junior high school in the New York City public school system before leaving to become a full-time writer. "I haven't really given up teaching," he says, "and I suppose I never will, not as long as I keep writing and talking to kids around the country and the world."

Seymour Simon is also a creator and the author of a series of 3D books and a series of Glow-in-the-Dark Books for Scholastic Book Clubs, a series of leveled SEEMORE READERS for Chronicle Books, and the EINSTEIN ANDERSON, SCIENCE DETECTIVE series of fiction books. His books encourage children to enjoy the world around them through learning and discovery, and by making science fun. He has introduced tens of millions of children to a staggering array of subjects; one prominent science education specialist described Simon's books as "extraordinary examples of expository prose."

Seymour Simon has been honored with many awards for his work, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award for his lasting contribution to children's science literature; the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library for his contribution to children's science literature; The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction; the Jeremiah Ludington Award for his outstanding contribution to children's nonfiction; the Empire State Award for excellence in literature for young people; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children's Science Books.

In a recent interview Simon was asked if he ever thinks of retiring. "I seem to be working faster and harder than ever. I absolutely don't feel any urge to sit back and look at what I've done. The only things that I'm thinking about are things I'd like to do in the future. I'm planning and doing and continuing to write. It's what I love to do. I remember a story about an anthropologist going to talk to a tribe and he asked them what was their word for "work." Their response was they have no word for work. Everybody does the things that they do in their life. I love that response. I don't differentiate between work and play. Everything I do is something that I enjoy doing - the writing, the research and everything else."

Seymour Simon writes and photographs nature from his hilltop home in Columbia County in upstate New York, where he lives with his wife Liz Nealon.

You can follow Seymour on Facebook and on Twitter, as well as on his website, which offers free, downloadable Teacher Guides to his books for educators, parents and homeschoolers, as well as the popular Seymour Science Daily Blo

Reviews

[Lara Ivey · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Seymour Simon and Smithsonian come together to work on a book you know it’s something worth checking out. Through this book, children gain a better understanding of how they fit into the world…even learning their “complete” address. It shows one way of looking at how the universe came to be with the Big Bang. Beyond that, you learn about distances from Earth to other objects in the universe as well as red giants and “space pods.” You will learn facts about the number of stars in our universe…take all the grains of sand from our beaches in this world and you still have more stars. Not only is the information interesting, the photos in this book will capture your attention leaving you wanting more!

• Visit the following site in order to learn more about our universe.
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

[Cara Noles · Rating 2 out of 5]

The universe is about the vast universe that we live in. The scale of earth from other planets is a big scale. It talks about seeing other planets, stars, and more through a telescope. It talks about the Milky Way, how stars are born, black holes, other galaxies, and more.

I did not really like this book. It talks about the Big Bang theory, but that does not aline with my believes. Although it was very educational, I got bored because there was a huge amount of text on every page. I did like how it talked about our vast universe and how amazing it is.

I would probably not read every page in my classroom, because the students would get bored. I would introduce a new unit about space and read some of this book to them. I would introduce stars, planets, the Milky Way, and black holes to them. I would want to discuss things we already knew and had learned from this book.

[Kathryn Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The universe is pretty much all that is around you. Planets, stars, galaxies and more make up our universe. From earth we can see into space and study the universe using things such as telescopes. We can also look into space using spacecrafts to get a closer look. Since space is so big we measure it in light years. We live in The Milky Way galaxy and our solar system has 8 planets, not including Pluto. All the planets circle our sun, one of billions of stars in the known universe. When a star gets old it swells up and turns red, after a while it will turn into a planetary nebula. Stars are born in planetary nebulas. There are also many different types of galaxies. Spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Our world is a small part of the universe. This is a great book.

[Taylor Brickley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives information about our galaxy, milkyway, stars, and planets. This book gives information on what each planet is made up of and gives the distances between each planet. The book also gives information about the sun and stars. I liked this book because the graphics are amazing and it gave real-life photographs taken by NASA. I would use this in a 4th grade classroom when they discuss space and solar-system.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents the information simply and in a straightforward manner. After assuming that the universe began with the Big Bang (there are other explanations, which are not mentioned), it does present facts about galaxies that have actually been observed by astronomers.
However, coming from a creationist perspective, I also found the book filled with evolutionary assumptions and unproven assertions presented as fact.

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vastness of the universe is simple mind-boggling. Simon starts to give us a feeling of just how big the universe truly is.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely but could already use an update!

Q2021 book

[Hsu Chao]

Quasar and Black holes and barred galaxy and irregular galaxy. Fornax A anomaly and Sagittarius A anomaly.

[Leland Kincaid · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty Cool, I love the, are those drawings or photographs? It would be pretty awesome to know that stuff that looks like that is even real.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

We've read several nonfiction books by Seymour Simon. His books are very informative and usually have a lot of interesting color photographs. I like that the books are educational, but not overwhelming with details or boring.

This book offers a good overview on the science of the universe, but it still mentions Pluto as a planet. Still, the narrative is engaging and we were able to read the entire book at one time.

The photographs are terrific and we loved looking at the beautiful images of the galaxies. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Deanna Sutter · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, I love these Smithsonian books! The pictures are amazing in them. The content in this one wasn't so great though. There was a lot of information about the Big Bang and so I skipped some of it as I was reading it a loud. It had a lot of information about stars and black holes. I thought it was interesting.

Generally these books are great though and I love the pictures!

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative read with fantastic photographs and illustrations, that sadly has become outdated due to its publication date. Still a nice addition to an classroom or library with a note from the teacher asking the reader to spot the mistake.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photos! Every child needs a strong working ability to read nonfiction text. This has a high interest and is rich with in vocabulary and content.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 25261 EN Nonfiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 5.5 - AR Pts: 0.5
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had very interesting facts. I liked the pictures. They amazed me.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Children's book- and I still learned a lot. Seymour Simon is always great.

[Earl Peters]

This book is great and has alot of cool pictures