Time for the stars by Robert A. Heinlein

Time for the stars by Robert A. Heinlein
ISBN:0345301862
Copyright 1956 by Robert A. Heinlein
There is a reason this man is a master of the sci-fi genre, don't forget that.

He has a writing style that lends itself to being understood. Not everyone can write sci-fi without explaining a lot of made up technology, or coming up with easy ways to grasp modern theoretical concepts.
He does neither here.

This is simply a well written story, that grasps a piece of everyday humanity.
You do not need to have been born when this was written, there is no popular slang or difficult scientific concepts.
In fact the concepts he uses are still debated today over fifty years later.

I'm not sure if I should be proud of the progress we have made understanding the human mind or appalled at the lack thereof.
If I were appalled then I would have to think that the human mind and brain are the same thing. Well I'm not and I know better, so do you.

When reading this you do not feel as if are reading a contemporary novel written over fifty years ago. Actually considering the theme for this book he'd appreciate that.

Take normal late high school teenage brothers, twins that don't have that sick instant bond that is seen in many novels or horror movies, add twins abilities to have their own communication. Sounds like normal life right?

Now lets make this Science fiction.
Take a research company who sees the potential of having twins speak telepathically to each other aboard research vessels. Discoveries and information is instantaneous.
Its still not quite science fiction.
Take one twin and put him on a space ship and the other stays back on earth, dirtside, while the ship searches for planets to colonize. There will be times when the ship travels close to light speed and then back to relative time. Years pass for one and not the other. How will they keep passing information back and forth if the other dies?

With the instant passing of scientific information scientists can keep up with the frontiersmen.

There is a nice twist at the end of the book about technology and Columbus, mentioning it here will spoil it.
When you have that quick intake of breath that preceeds having realized you just overlooked something obvious, remember I warned you. There is a satisfying ending, with bits of happy.

Everyone should read one of the masters, this is just a good reason why.

Comets, Stars, the moon and mars

Comets, stars, the moon, and mars is a children's book written and illustrated by Douglas Florian.
This is a nice way to start young children learning about astronomy and the universe around them. It starts with stars and goes through, constellations, our solar system (updated with Pluto as a dwarf planet) and continues out to the great beyond.
The poems are catchy and fun to say, some can become great tongue twisters.
The illustrations are not just pictures they are labeled. The parts of a comet, the craters and moons of planets, and on earth there are representations of wildlife on their appropriate continents.

If you have a young child who is interested in stars, or that you want to get interested in stars this is a good book to start with.

There is also a selected bibliography in the back of the book that lists top of the field references for all ages. I do suggest that adults try Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time before trying to explain it to their five year olds.