The Fantastic Cutaway Book of Spacecraft - Softcover

Grade 3-6-Seventeen topics, ranging from V-2 rockets to lunar landers, manned maneuvering units, the Hubble telescope, and even a possible manned Mars lander, are briefly covered in a series of two-page spreads. Full-color and black-and-white drawings and photographs of the various machines are scattered across the pages and surrounded by text that provides only limited facts. The oversized format and the colorful pages will attract browsers, but students will have to look elsewhere for real information. Fans of cutaway illustrations will also be disappointed, as Pang's pale in comparison to Stephen Biesty's work, such as Incredible Cross Sections (Knopf, 1992). Most libraries already have books that provide more material on various manned space missions, including the shuttle flights, while Richard Maurer's Rocket! (Crown, 1995) gives readers a much better idea of how rockets work and how they have developed over time. Fantastic Hawkes's title isn't; it will catch the eye, but it's show without any substance.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.