Puffin Little, Little Scientist: The Solar System, Puffin Books, July 2020, 96 pp., RRP $12.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760897017
The Puffin Little series of information books for young readers includes Scientist, Environmentalist, Cook, Explorer, and Historian. They are a handy size (a little under A5) and published in a sturdy matt paperback with similarly strong pages. The plain and bright design style is common to the series, with covers combining bright yellow and a different contrasting colour for each subject area – bright blue for Little Scientist.
Little Scientist: The Solar System covers the topic in a clear and satisfying way, dividing the information into neat subtopics and manageable chunks. After a brief introduction we have The Solar System; The Sun; The Rocky Planets; The Asteroid Belt; The Gas giants; and The Dwarf Planets. Chapter length varies from two or three pages to seven or so. The information on each page is manageable for the age group, but with plenty of interesting material – there is no sense of dumbing down. The contents page makes navigating the book very easy, and there is a glossary over two pages at the back, and a very short quiz. This last could be a good model for readers to write their own quizzes.
Bright blue and white design, and black and white illustrations, give a fresh look to the pages, including varying the text between black and white, with blue used to highlight important words. Puffin appears throughout, often with in his or her own spacecraft.
This looks like a great series for libraries – at home or school – and they are published as ebooks as well. Two more will be released in September.
Reviewed by Marita Thomson
