Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone

"Yes, it’s clear that astronomy and space travel and planets are very popular, we had several books on these topics. We really liked this one because it’s a more narrative form of non-fiction and the author is an astrophysicist who has won awards for outreach. It’s very clear that she’s used to talking to and engaging with kids. You can tell she’s writing from an academic perspective, but also that she’s writing to answer the sorts of questions that she gets from kids. We also liked the illustrations, but the big thing was the authentic nature of the author’s voice, and that she is clearly writing for curious kids. Yes, I can really see that teachers can use that in classes in a very fun way. The age range we’re aiming at with all the books in the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize is 8-14. But clearly, individual books will be better for certain ages. I could see this one covering quite a large age range, because parts of it are the sorts of things that little kids ask, but then there’s a lot of it that I think would be engaging to the slightly older children in that range. Yes, whereas the chapters on the night sky and why is the sky blue would be good for little kids. But I also learned a lot; when I read about astrophysics, it sort of makes my head hurt. Yes, it’s very digestible and you could read it spread out over time, although once I got started on it I just kept reading it straight through. But individual chapters don’t rely on the previous one."