Stars and Planets

by Robin Kerrod

An introduction to astronomy with emphasis on the characteristics and interrelationship of the stars and planets on our galaxy.

125 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Robin Kerrod writes for young people on all aspects of science and technology, and on astronomy for a wider audience. A former winner of the COPUS (Committee on the Public Understanding of Science) Junior Science Book Prize, he was a major contributor to the DK Science Encyclopedia. He has also co-written The Way Science Works for DK, and is one of the authors of The Way the Universe Works.

Reviews

[Berry Muhl]

I want to start off with a disclaimer. This book does not appear to be the same one I read; at the very least, it is of a markedly different edition. The book I read was simply titled Stars and Planets. It was not in a Q&A format.

That being said, it was a good introduction to the night sky for neophyte observers. It's a convenient pocket size, it's not too abstruse for youngsters, and is informative and interesting enough. The author has written dozens of science-oriented guidebooks with the goal of interesting students in the sciences, and if they're all of this quality, then he has succeeded in drawing quite a few toward the STEM disciplines.

It's not perfect, but its imperfections are minor enough that they shouldn't dissuade anyone from checking it out. The biggest quibble I have is a factual error in the opening chapter, which provides a timeline of significant scientific discoveries and advances. Kerrod reverses the dates of Einstein's two papers on Relativity (the Special theory came first, in 1905, a decade before the General). Outside of that, the issues are simply a matter of subjective taste: what you might take exception to being omitted from an introductory book. Since I have a handful of more advanced books on the subject close at hand, I don't really take exception to anything else.