Five Faves: Informational Books About Eclipses

One of my newer bucket list goals is to see a total solar eclipse. When I realized that this year's eclipse would be the week after my kids' spring break, I went into chaotic research mode to see if we could find a way to get to a part of the country where we could see the eclipse in totality. Alas, we can't make it work this time, and I'm still not over it. Maybe 2026 in Iceland--how cool would that be?! Whether you can experience the eclipse in person or just wish you could, you can still have the joy of learning more about eclipses with the following informational reads!

Casting Shadows: Solar and Lunar Eclipses With the Planetary Society
By Bruce Betts
Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Pub Group, 2024, Informational. 32 pages.

Learn about the different types of eclipses, where and how you can safely see them, why they happen, and cool things that can happen during the different types of eclipses. Beautiful, full-color photographs go along with the wealth of information.

Eclipse
By Andy Rash
New York: Scholastic Press, 2023. Informational.

A father and son share in the excitement and beauty of a solar eclipse. Told in countdown style, a little boys learns about an eclipse to happen in a month's time and then follows him and his father in different moments leading up to the eclipse, how time seems to stand still during the eclipse, and ends describing the moments after and the memories the pair will cherish in the far distant future.

Eclipse Chaser: Science in the Moon's Shadow
By Ilima Loomis
Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. Informational. 79 pages.

Readers follow a solar scientist and her team as they attempt, with varying degrees of success, to study the sun's coronal atmosphere during solar eclipses. Descriptions of what the scientists found in the past and what they were looking for in the future, and why, are explained clearly.

Exploring Eclipses
By Jill Sherman
North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2018. Informational. 32 pages.

Exploring Eclipses explains how people in the past viewed and tried to make sense of eclipses, the different types and parts of eclipses, and how eclipses are studied today.

A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse
Written by Kate Allen Fox
Illustrated by Khoa Le
New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2023. Informational.

An ode to the awe-inspiring nature of a solar eclipse and how it reminds humanity of their tininess in the universe and brings people together over a few beautiful shared moments.

Comments

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

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