Booklists - Cooperative Children's Book Center

To print a CCBC booklist, click on a list below and then use your browser’s “Print” command. You can also select books from one or more booklists to create a custom list, which can also include books from the CCBC-Recommended Book Search.

< Back to booklist

The Mysterious Universe: Supernovae, Dark Energy, and Black Holes. (Scientists in the Field)

by Ellen Jackson

CCBC Review:

Another great entry in the Scientists in the Field series follows astronomy professor Alex Filippenko, whose specialty is dark matter and dark energy. We see him at work at UC-Berkeley, where he has been voted “Best Professor on Campus” five times (and when you see the Black Hole costume he wears on Halloween, you'll know why). We follow him and a graduate student to Hawaii to observe a supernova in the Keck Observatory. It's fascinating to see the inner workings of a high-tech observatory, and to get a glimpse of the sort of work astronomers do. The book includes a scene where the technology malfunctions one night, and we get to see what Alex does instead (he seeks permission to use a different spectrograph, and whittles down the list of objects they planned to observe.) Accompanying the narrative that describes Alex and his work, there is a second narrative that explains a lot of the scientific concepts he mentions, such as supernovae, black holes, the Big Bang theory, the expansion of the universe, red shift, blue shift, etc., all in clear, concise terms, and in the context of Alex's work. Nic Bishops crisp color photographs are augmented by breathtaking NASA photos. ©2008 Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Nic Bishop

CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 10 and older
Age Range: Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10) Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13) Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format: Substantial Narrative Non-Fiction
Subjects: Science and Scientists Space/Astronomy

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publish Year: 2008
Pages: 60
ISBN: 9780618563258
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 523 Jackson

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Our Recommended Book Search includes subject access to CCBC-recommended titles based on subject headings created by our staff.