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Summary: Not just a kid's book...great for all beginning stargazers!
Review: H. A. Rey is best known for his "Curious George" stories, but he was a scientist by profession and he also wrote two books on stargazing for children. If you have a child who is interested in the stars, this book is delightful and highly readable. And if YOU are interested in the stars, dont hesitate to get it for yourself! Rey has a unique way of showing the constellations: he actually went through the trouble of drawing lines between the stars of a constellation to form a meaningful picture - so Gemini (the twins) actually looks like a pair of twins, Cetus (the whale) looks like a whale, and so forth. A word of warning: to form these pictures, Rey often had to rely on dim stars. Don't expect to see them from the city! Access to a dark country sky is essential to get the most out of this book. That said, "The Stars" makes the mastery of stargazing accessible and fun for children and adults alike.
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Summary: The best book ever on Stargazing
Review: Here is a book review of an old book, written by H. A. Rey, the author of the "Curious George" books (no relation to me!). _The Stars: A New Way to See Them_ was first written in 1952. Houghton-Mifflin's 3rd edition, dated 1973, is available in bookstores and online at Amazon.com. I recently picked up a used 1966 edition.Rey's book was written for children to help them learn to recognize the constellations. As you may know, few of the constellations seem to resemble the character or object they are supposed to represent. It takes an awfully good imagination to see Bootes as a shepherd, or Auriga as a charioteer, or Aries as a ram. Rey takes those same star patterns and rearranges the lines to produce stick figures that actually look like something. Not only that, they have the appearance of the intended object or character of mythology. Perseus looks like he's coming to Andromeda's rescue. Monoceros looks like a stick-figure unicorn, and Camelopardalis looks like a skinny giraffe. Rey's book _The Stars_ is laid out in four parts: Part 1 is "Shapes in the Sky", where he describes old and new ways of arranging the stars. Part 2 is "Meet the Constellations", where he shows a diagram of each constellation and gives a bit of information about it. In Part 3, "The Stars Throughout the Year" he has twelve sets of calendar charts - with and without the lines drawn in -- and explains that the sky is always changing, as the earth travels in its path around the sun. Additional calendar charts include viewing areas farther north and south than most of us are familiar with. Part 4, "Some Whys and Hows" goes into some technical details on the celestial sphere, the path of the ecliptic, why we have seasons, the earth's orbit, solar and sidereal time, precession, and other topics for those with an inquiring scientific mind. It is not necessary to read or understand this section to enjoy the book, but it adds to its value as a learning tool. Rey tells about the moon and its phases, gives a good description of a cross-section of the Milky Way galaxy, and gives some facts about the planets. The planetary tables won't do me much good in the twenty-first century, though. My 1966 edition has planetary tables from 1961 through 1970. The newer edition may have updated tables, however. A 2001 reviewer of the book on Amazon.com says it has planetary tables for the next ten years. The back pages of the book contain a good index and glossary, a whole-sky chart, an index to the constellations by their English names and by their classical Latin names, and a list of the twenty brightest stars. Hans Augusto Rey has provided enough information in this little 160-page book to satisfy any "Curious George", me included.>Now, if you prefer the classical representations of the constellations, you might not care for Rey's rearrangement of their appearance. For instance, the tail of the Great Bear becomes her nose, and Hercules's body becomes his head. But at least the figures are memorable, and if it helps kids - or adults - to learn the star patterns in the night sky, I would say it has accomplished a lot. I highly recommend this book to stargazers everywhere, young or old. Amateur astronomers can use it to help young people and astronomy novices get comfortable with wandering the skies at night.
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Summary: I was stunned...
Review: I bought this book for a (now ex)girlfriend, a Ph.D. candidate in Astronomy, as a gag gift. Having a fairly good science background, I thought it was a children's book that would have no use to me. My GF fell in love with the gift and it has lasted much longer than our relationship. Using this book, she explained things about astronomy to me that I had never even heard of. She went on to use it in teaching an undergraduate astronomy course. Rey uses his talents as a children's author to make concepts clear and give an excellent basic understanding of astronomy. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in astronomy, or even someone dating an astonomer ;)
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Summary: The finest introductory work on Astronomy in print
Review: I found this book in a library as a young child in 1978. After renewing it as many times as I could, my mother bought me a copy. This book started a lifetime love of observational Astronomy that continues to this day. I still have that very book now--it is worn, marked, ripped, and the cover has fallen off--but it is still a book that I pull out from time to time. Rey's method of teaching Astronomy is to keep things as simple and basic as possible. If all you want to do is recognize the constellations in the sky and know when to see them, then you read the first three chapters. If you want to learn a bit more about celestial mechanics, then you read further. You learn as much as you want to. Rey's outlines of the constellations are innovative in that that really LOOK like what the constellations are supposed to represent. The first time I used this book to find constellations (at age eight) I was able to pick out a few even in the light polluted skies of the SF Bay Area. The only criticism that I have for this book (which only popped up when I reached adulthood) is that in order to draw some of his realistic outlines of the constellations, Rey needed to incorporate a number of faint stars that can only be seen in areas that have very dark skies at night. Under such conditions there are so many stars peppering the heavens (that are not on Rey's charts) that an amateur could be overwhelmed and get lost. Despite this quibbling, I still consider this book to be the best introductory work on Astronomy around, no matter what age the reader. I've seen lots of other "Astronomy 101" books--some are good, some are great, but after 50 years of being in print, "The Stars" has yet to be beat.
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Summary: The finest introductory work on Astronomy in print
Review: I found this book in a library as a young child in 1978. After renewing it as many times as I could, my mother bought me a copy. This book started a lifetime love of observational Astronomy that continues to this day. I still have that very book now--it is worn, marked, ripped, and the cover has fallen off--but it is still a book that I pull out from time to time. Rey's method of teaching Astronomy is to keep things as simple and basic as possible. If all you want to do is recognize the constellations in the sky and know when to see them, then you read the first three chapters. If you want to learn a bit more about celestial mechanics, then you read further. You learn as much as you want to. Rey's outlines of the constellations are innovative in that that really LOOK like what the constellations are supposed to represent. The first time I used this book to find constellations (at age eight) I was able to pick out a few even in the light polluted skies of the SF Bay Area. The only criticism that I have for this book (which only popped up when I reached adulthood) is that in order to draw some of his realistic outlines of the constellations, Rey needed to incorporate a number of faint stars that can only be seen in areas that have very dark skies at night. Under such conditions there are so many stars peppering the heavens (that are not on Rey's charts) that an amateur could be overwhelmed and get lost. Despite this quibbling, I still consider this book to be the best introductory work on Astronomy around, no matter what age the reader. I've seen lots of other "Astronomy 101" books--some are good, some are great, but after 50 years of being in print, "The Stars" has yet to be beat.
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Summary: Superior book for advanced children to learn Constellations!
Review: I was given the hardbound version as a gift from my father's business contact in the early 1960s. For years it sat on my shelf, too advanced for me. Then, as a young teen, I picked it off the shelf, curious about it, and read it cover to cover. What a delight to discover that this book was by the same creator as "Curious George"! His artwork is clear and kid-friendly! By slightly redrawing the connecting lines between stars, H.A.Rey makes the constellations LOOK like the objects they are named after. Each edition contains a ten year table of locations for spotting the planets among the zodiac. Be sure to buy an edition that has a table valid for the coming decade for your child or adult to fully utilize in the years to come. -A superior volume. I can't say enough about this book!
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Summary: It's the best (along with its twin)
Review: I've been an amateur astronomer for over 16 years and have three years of post-doc training, and still consider this book (along with Find the Constellations) to be the among very best introductory observational astronomy books ever published. I can't think of a single individual who has brought more enjoyment and pleasure to what can actually be a slogging, tough discipline. I refer to it whenever I want to teach someone about astronomical observation. It's too bad Rey didn't apply his talents to other areas of science, or we wouldn't be so worried about people not enjoying science. "For kids from one to ninety-two."
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Summary: a real star
Review: I, too, first found this book as a child, and despite a lifelong interest in books and star-gazing, have failed to find another book as simple yet informative. A lovely, charming introduction to the sky at night, and recommended for anyone hoping to encourage their children to look up at night, and out at the universe.
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Summary: From spaghetti to Serengeti
Review: If I had my way, all ways of depicting the constellations other than those presented in this book would be banned by federal statute.
H. A. Rey (the gifted creator of Curious George) has put together an incredible and fruitful way of seeing the stars. His method is simple and delivers results almost immediately. You will see Aquarius pouring water from his jar; majestic Leo as a proud lion; Sagittarius with his bow; Cetus swimming in the inky sea. I don't care if more learned tomes continue to show disjointed and illogical star groups. H. A. Rey will populate your night sky with live beings -- not random batches of pick-up sticks! I'd give this book a 6 if I could!
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Summary: The Ultimate Guide to the Constellations
Review: If you've ever wanted to REALLY learn the constellations, this is the best book ever written to do just that. Rey's style of depicting the characters up in the night sky as stick figures makes them very easy to find, learn, and remember for both children and adults. Rey uses the English translation of the constellation names, making them even more user-friendly (though he also gives their classical names, as well). Other methods use only the brightest stars contained within the constellation and draw lines between them to form odd-shaped geometric figures which don't really have anything to do with their namesake. For example: Hercules, using the Rey method, looks like a stick-figure man running and brandishing a club. The geometric style shows a box with lines radiating out, away from it, sort of like a childish pinwheel. Believe it or not, there are some people who are actually devoted to this non-sensical method of showing constellations(!) and hate the Rey system because it's not the way *they* learned them. Rey's book also contains a wealth of other, more technical, information about our solar system, how the Earth's sky has its own mapping grid (similar to the Earth's lines of latitude and longitude), and there are even easy-to-use tables for finding the visible planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at any time of the year for the next ten years. As a child, I tried to learn the constellations from books and charts that used the geometric style, and after a few tries, gave up. The names meant nothing to me, and the shapes were dull and made no sense. Then I got hold of "The Stars: A New Way To See Them," by H.A. Rey, and within 6 months I found and memorized more than half of the constellations visible from light-polluted San Jose. I'm into amateur astronomy, now, heavily involved with volunteer work at the local observatory. It's the highlight of my night to be able to hear children say, "I can see it! I can see it!" when I point out a constellation to them, and show it to them in Rey's book. Who knows? Maybe I've started something for those kids... PS: This book was endorsed by Albert Einstein. Really!
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