Exoplanets: Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

Reviewed by: Brooke Faulkner - McArthur Public Library, Biddeford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 7, 2017

Review

This slim volume provides an accessible overview of recent scientific research about planets beyond our solar system, with a focus placed on those considered to be in what is termed "The Goldilocks Zone" -- planets that are not too cold or not too hot to potentially host life.

In short chapters embellished with artists' renderings, graphs and telescopic images, the author explains how this field of astronomical research has progressed from Carl Sagan's relatively recent (1997) supposition that there was no evidence to support hypothetical life elsewhere in the universe to a growing consensus that its confirmation is really only a matter of time. Science-minded middle and high school students will find this useful for class work, as will teens who favor non-fiction about the natural world. Concise explanations of how this branch of astronomy was and is studied and a round up of significant discoveries are included in the narrative, which culminates in a list of source notes, a glossary, a bibliography, a list of resources for further information and a thorough index.

A review of this title in Kirkus makes note that its tally of accepted exoplanets is already outdated and also mentions that a nearer Earth-like planet has been discovered since the time of its publication. However, for a field of study clearly moving at rapid speed, this gives teens a readable and solid background.

Overall Book Score: very good