Features less story and more science than book 1, but still an adventure leading to more understanding about outer space and some astrophysics. The photographs are are great and more included than in book 1.
No rating until the book is evaluated by my grandchildren for the storyline and the astrophysics.

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From the series that starts with George's Secret Key to the Universe; likewise almost entirely by Lucy Hawking, with a few inserted pieces on science by her father Stephen Hawking and various other well-known scientists. To be honest I wasn't all that impressed; George and friends are taken by convenient plot device to a number of educational settings to have adventures; Annie, the kick-ass heroine of the first book, gets rather sidelined here for other young male characters, and the means and motivation of the bad guys are not very clear or consistent. But the illustrations by Garry Parsons are jolly, and both books have a lot of beautiful astronomical photographs which are almost worth the price themselves. ( )

This book was really fun to listen to and my rating is reflected as an adult reader (five stars for a child or teen). The story line is cute (nothing deep) but the lack of depth is made up for by scientic facts! Even though this was meant for someone younger, I found myself learning many things (all facinating facts). Want to brush up on your planetary knowledge? This book is a perfect, quick, fun read that I would recommend to ANY parent. Buy the audio book and play this in the car to the kids and I bet they'll want more! Apparently this is the second book to this series and although I found that out halfway through listening to it, this didn't bother me at all. I would have enjoyed starting off with the first book though, and would recommend others to do the same. ( )

My son Michael loved this book written by Lucy Hawking and her famous scientist father, Stephen Hawking. Although I found my mind wandering through some of the descriptions of red shift and black holes, Michael was mesmerized and would bring me back to the book with questions about the universe. I found "let's ask Dad" a good answer for most of them. This is a good book for science fans. ( )

Z really liked it . . . I think that the fiction part is pretty poorly written and full of stock characters. The science essays were awesome. ( )