Living in space

Gr 4-6-Designed to provide quick overviews of space-related topics, each of these volumes combines small but clear color photos with brief texts to scan the history and major functions of near-Earth spacecraft or, for Living in Space, daily life aboard the International Space Station. Couched in generalities, the captions and commentary are dry in spots, and some statements ("humans need oxygen and nitrogen to breathe") are simplistic. Furthermore, there are pages of boilerplate in each title and some of it, such as a communal sidebar on astronaut qualifications, isn't relevant to Rockets and Satellites. Still, as each volume includes a good tally of how space-related technology is put to use and even takes a cursory look at three related jobs in the field, these books merit consideration as supplementary additions to deep subject collections.-John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.