Guy Holt, From Space to Core: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Wild Dog Books, April 2020, 48 pp, RRP $27.99, April 2020, (hbk), ISBN 9781742033792
From Space to Core: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a great book for parents dealing with bamboozling questions on outer and inner space from their little quarantined scientists and mathematicians.
The book begins with the International Space Station and moves on to a wide variety of topics including the five layers of the atmospheres, the highest balloon ever launched, the highest flowering plant, the lowest railway station and the deepest dinosaur fossil found.
There is a line running down the left-hand side of the pages showing the position of the object / creature to earth in metres and kilometres, e.g. the bearded vulture can fly at a height of 7,300 metres and the Fangtooth swims at a depth of 5000 metres (There’s social distancing for you). And on some of the right-hand side of the pages is the temperature of the location. The earth’s inner core is 5430 degrees Celsius, which is the same temperature as the surface of the sun.
Most of the pages are illustrated with photographs and diagrams and the information is in small chunks with clear headings.
From Space to Core: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is suitable for children aged eight and older, depending on their knowledge of the vocabulary of science. Although these words may also fascinate them too: who wouldn’t want to travel in their imaginations to the bottom of the midnight zone to the top of the abyssal zone?
Reviewed by Katy Gerner
