Simon, Seymour. Destination: Space. 32 pp. HarperCollins 4/02. ISBN: 0-688-16289-4. $15.95. Library edition. ISBN: 0-688-16290-8 $15.89. (Primary, Intermediate)

Over the past ten years, the Hubble Telescope has brought into our view some truly incredible space sights. Simon uses these remarkable images in a slide show-like tour of stars, galaxies, and nebulae (as well as a few images from our own solar system). While the full-page images are consistently spectacular, it is Simon’s detail-rich text that rounds out their significance. He explains the recent scientific findings supported by the images and guides readers to the important details that illustrate such phenomena as energy outbursts from aging stars, clusters of newly formed stars and the interactions among bodies that lead to gas cloud distortions. Included in the book are several images that at first glance don’t look as impressive but turn out to be the most exciting—one of the first images of a black hole, and another of a galaxy formed fourteen billion years ago whose light is only now reaching us. Simon’s skilled use of analogies helps readers to make sense of the space phenomena, though the vast distances and lengthy time spans involved can be challenging to comprehend. D.J.F.