The Planets

September 1, 2008
Gr 1-3-In an inexcusably superficial update of the 2005 edition, Gibbons revises her text minimally and leaves the art untouched. Along with leaving her mention of the 2004 Mars Exploration Rover Mission still illustrated only with a view of a '70s-era Viking Lander, she lets Pluto continue to sail along the peripheries of the planetary mapsin an incorrect orbit to bootand gives it an entire spread. Furthermore, though she properly notes that Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, Ceres, which was upgraded at the same time to the same status, gets nary a mention. Despite some intriguing facts ("On Venus, a day is longer than a year, and a year is shorter than a day") and that familiar, instantly recognizable look, this outing has less to offer fledgling readers than such other recent tours as Seymour Simon's "Our Solar System" (HarperCollins, 2007)."John Peters, New York Public Library"

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