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Books and Arts
Nature 450, 950 (13 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/450950a; Published online 12 December 2007
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Children's Books: Star tales
Mark Brake1
BOOK REVIEWED-Earth Story
by Eric Maddern & Leo Duff (illus.)
Frances Lincoln: £5.99
BOOK REVIEWED-Stardust from Space
by Monica Grady & Lucia deLeiris (illus.)
Frances Lincoln: £11.99
BOOK REVIEWED-Zoo in the Sky
by Jacqueline Mitton & Christina Balit (illus.)
National Geographic: $7.95
BOOK REVIEWED-Kingdom of the Sun
by Jacqueline Mitton & Christina Balit (illus.)
Frances Lincoln: £6.99National Geographic: $16.95
BOOK REVIEWED-Galileo: Scientist and Star Gazer
by Jacqueline Mitton & Gerry Ball (illus.)
Oxford University Press: £4.99
BOOK REVIEWED-Moon Man
by David Donohue
Egmont Books: £4.99
"If you want your children to be intelligent," Albert Einstein said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Stories are how we make sense of the world, they help shape what we see, do and dream. Children who have difficulties focusing in class will sit spellbound by a narrative.
There are a lot of studies on the power of stories; psychologists refer to information presented in story form as 'psychologically privileged'. Our brains, it seems, are especially attentive and responsive to information conveyed in a narrative. Stories greatly aid recall. They provide a meaningful structure — hooks upon which to hang new knowledge.
All this is a gift, you would have hoped, to communicators of science. Yet too many authors of children's science books pick up on one of the key strands of storytelling without taking the creative step of bringing them all together. And what greater story than space and the origin of our planet?
Narrative structures make more sense when causal relationships are clear, and causality is key in Eric Maddern's Earth Story (8–13 years). This is a dramatic and nicely illustrated account of the origins of Earth. Maddern takes the reader on a journey from the enormous bang at the beginning of the universe through to the very first forms of life on our planet. But the book suffers from an otherwise limited and impersonal approach, with little suspense.
The use of complications and challenges in a narrative help to create a problem-solving scenario that involves the reader. Stardust from Space by Monica Grady (8–12 years) attempts to tell the story of stardust, and how it made our Solar System. But it is so replete and unrelenting in its presentation of data, one can almost hear Thomas Gradgrind, Charles Dickens's heartless utilitarian, screaming, "Fact, fact, fact!"
ZOO IN THE SKY, FRANCES LINCOLN PUBLISHERS
Strong, interesting characters are also essential to good stories. As F. Scott Fitzgerald went so far as to suggest, "action is character". Jacqueline Mitton understands this very well. Her books Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations and Kingdom of the Sun: A Book of The Planets (7–12 years) (pictured), imbue the Sun, plants and constellations with character. Lavishly illustrated by Christina Balit, Mitton's stories clearly exhibit an understanding of the power of character and narrative for newly confident readers. Mitton does even better with Galileo: Scientist and Star Gazer (9–16 years). Here is the excitement of the discovery and exploration of science as unfolding narrative. A wonderful way of stimulating aspirant cosmologists.
A book that manages to bring together many of the key components of successful storytelling is David Donohue's Moon Man (8–14 years). This is a gripping and inventive account of young Walter Speazlebud's quest to find the truth about the 1969 Moon landings: fact or fiction.
Walter uses his power of Noitanigami — 'imagination' to those who sadly lack the ability to spell, talk and travel backwards. He travels back in time to 1969 to prove that the Moon landing happened. Granted, the Moon's surface does look a little like the Nevada desert. Granted too that Neil Armstrong botched his 'lines'. Walter's grandad said it happened, and even if he is getting confused in the head, he must be right. Walter proves this by mastering his gift of Noitanigami. His next task: to take his grandfather back in time, too, and rid him of his Alzheimer's disease. Marvellous.
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