For most of human history, people  were in the dark about their knowledge of light. In recent years we have learned its properties, its speed, even how to create it and literally turn night into day. Yet there are still things about light that we don’t know. And we are just beginning to understand how to harness its awesome potential to improve life on earth.

  • Publisher: The Creative Company
  • Series: Mysteries of the Universe
  • Year Published: 2012
  • Age Level: 10-14
  • Category:

Reviews:

This sophisticated series will appeal to report writers and serious astronomy students. Each book carefully examines the history behind attempts to unravel explanations for the subjects, going back to Anaxagoras’s work on energy in 450 B.C. all the way up to the contemporary findings of Stephen Hawking. The numerous theories put forth throughout the ages are meticulously detailed and put in context of how research was able to proceed despite political or religious pressures to suppress it. Sidebars bring in interesting tidbits, including information about how pop culture has used or misused science in fiction and film. As they bring together science, history, and philosophy, these volumes are exhaustive treatments of their subjects. (School Library Journal)

The “Mysteries of the Universe” series books are uniformly written by one author, so the quality is consistently high. This collection would be an excellent addition to any middle school science classroom or library. Facts, theories, and historical information are presented alongside full-page color photographs with simple but informative annotations. Another student-friendly element of this series is the brightly-colored bold text vocabulary words and accompanying glossary. Each book concludes with a list of suggested websites, a selected bibliography, and an index making this an excellent source for middle school research assignments. (Jackie Fulton, Children’s Literature)