The Incredible Journey to the Planets by Nicholas Harris is a science resource picture book that should appeal to beginning astronomy students of any age. Lavish artwork of our sun and the heavenly bodies that orbit it is accompanied by cutaway illustrations that show colorful mantles and cores, as well as relational depictions of planets with their moons. For example, there is a picture of Uranus as seen from its own moon, Miranda, and a fascinating series of Saturn with its rings at different angles as seen from Earth.

Illustrators Sebastian Quigley and Gary Hincks devote at least a full technicolor page in this oversize, hardback book to each of the following: the Milky Way, the solar system, the Sun, the nine planets, asteroids, and comets. The author includes special text boxes filled with “fun facts” about each celestial sphere that augment the narrative of planetary descriptions. One such fact is that it takes more than 200 million years for our sun to orbit the galaxy. The descriptions read smoothly, though they are a far cry from the travelogue suggested by the voyage imagery of the book’s title.

In keeping with the metaphor of “reader as space traveler,” the book has windows cut in the middle of each page. This allows the reader who begins the journey at the sun to see the sunlit faces of all the planets as she travels toward them. While this is an unlikely scenario, it does not necessarily contribute to a basic misconception of our solar system. Unfortunately, as the reader looks back from a further planet toward the sun, she can see the well-lit faces of the planets she has already “visited” with the sun beaming from behind them. Though it is certainly not the intention of the authors or illustrators to suggest that planets are so brightly lit by some source other than the sun, the layout of these illustrations can contribute to the confusion that many students have when they look into the night sky and see both stars and planets shining.

This example demonstrates both a major strength and a potential weakness of using artwork rather than photographs for this type of resource. On the one hand, illustrators can express planetary images and highlight relationships in ways that photographs are unlikely to capture. This is especially true for expressing theories of planetary creation and composition. On the other hand, artwork allows for more chances to misrepresent what understandings we have about the astronomical system where we live.

Though the text cites minimal source material, the glossary and suggested further readings are geared to pre-K to college, reflecting the wide audience that the author and illustrators engage. Though The Incredible Journey to the Planets is an ambitious title, the combinations of text and art, and the short list of further readings and glossary at the book’s end, make this teacher resource a fantastic window through which students of all ages can sample the marvels of our solar system.

W.M.S.