Book review: 'Ulimate Space Atlas' is a mediocre read

I have two kids who love space, one is 10 and the other is 6. So when, "Ultimate Space Atlas" came into my home, I was curious to see how much they enjoyed it.

First of all, "Ultimate Space Atlas" promises hours of fun with "maps, games, and activities." Of course, I naturally assumed it also had a bunch of potential learning within its pages as well.

Full color, with many fun facts, this book talks about everything space-related, from Mars to the Kuiper Belt to colliding galaxies. If you have a budding space enthusiast, this book is for them.

Image used with permission from Media Masters Publicity

However, it wasn't for my six-year-old. She and I read several pages together, but it was obvious this book was over her head. Even though the pictures and photos were cool, because of the amount of text (a lot) on each page, she quickly became bored even though I was narrating in, what I thought, was a pretty exciting voice.

Also, even though, "Ultimate Space Atlas" promised to be full of all kinds of fun activities and games, it wasn't. Out of the 160 pages, there were only four pages with games and two with trivia; the rest was learning material.

Now, I'm not saying learning material is bad--because it isn't (hello, home school mom here). But, based on what the front was proclaiming, I had hoped for the ratio of learning to fun to not be so skewed.

However, my 10-year-old has been properly impressed with this book. This is a great one for kids who want to know more about space and the color awesomeness that is National Geographic to go along with it. Erupting stars, black holes, nebulae, it's all there. All that cool geekiness (spell check says that's not a word. whatever) even has fun, "Did you know?" facts that kids just love to learn.

So, bottom line: "Ultimate Space Atlas" is probably best for ages 10 and up. And, because of the massive amounts of information and few fun games, it's also most likely best for kids who can concentrate on non-fiction or space without having to be entertained along the way. This is a clean book with nothing offensive in it, so you can give it to your budding nerd in good conscious.

Author Carolyn DeCristofano has worked with NASA and Harvard-Smithsonian. She lives in Massachusetts.