Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids

From School Library Journal Grade 3-5-Simon revisits the territory he covered in The Long Journey from Space (Crown, 1982; o.p.), this time for a younger audience. Full-color photographs have replaced the black-and-white ones, although there's really not a lot of difference between a black-and-white and a color shot of a meteor. While this new volume does include the basic information necessary to understand what these astronomical objects are and where they come from (including the distinctions between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites), that's about all it does provide. Simon's earlier book and Patricia Lauber's Voyagers from Space (Crowell, 1989), also for older children, have much more information and many more illustrations (Lauber's title has some color photos as well). Comets and "shooting stars" are both covered in the "Let's Read and Find Out" series (Crowell) for this age group. Where those titles are unavailable or demand is high, Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids is an acceptable purchase. Or, you could make do with a current children's encyclopedia.