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.

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