REVIEW OF THE UPDATED 2014 EDITION
Yes and first and foremost, if you are actually planning on using Seymour Simon’s non fiction picture book Our Solar System for actual teaching purposes (either in the classroom or at home), you MOST DEFINITELY need to be choosing the most recent and updated version (namely the one from 2014), since the original edition from 1995 of course will still list Pluto as the ninth planet. And while I personally do have my own issues and frustrations with Pluto being demoted and now only considered as a dwarf planet, well, an astronomy book that is to be used for children’s education should naturally also be as up-to-date as possible. Therefore, although this edition of Our Solar System would bien sûr still not be sufficiently updated with regard to post 2014 discoveries, research and NASA voyages, Seymour Simon’s text for Our Solar System does indeed provide a nicely decent and more than adequate basic introduction to the solar system, to the eight planets of the solar system, including of course the earth as well, and also showing us the reasons why Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet but must share its status as a planetoid (as a dwarf planet) with other similar entities like Ceres, Sedna and Eris (and indeed, for further research, although Seymour Simon does not provide a bibliography in book form, the 2014 edition of Our Solar System includes four websites, and yes, this might in fact even be a trifle preferable, as those websites would more than likely stay up-to-date whilst for books that would and could of course not be the case).
Now with regard to the actual textual and factual representation for Our Solar System, albeit I believe Seymour Simon provides a useable and sufficiently interesting general introduction to the solar system for children from about the age of seven to eleven or so (and appreciatively in a clear and concise manner and thankfully without using confusing and too much verbally difficult science and astronomy specific jargon), I also wish that sometimes Seymour Simon’s printed words would go just a wee bit farther and expand a bit (such as for example mentioning the reason why Mars might now only have vestiges of either an atmosphere or water could be that unlike Earth, Mars has no plate tectonics and that the orbits of Neptune and Pluto regularly intersect so that sometimes Neptune is actually further from the sun and vice versa). But still, and as long as the updated 2014 edition of Our Solar System is used, I do recommend Seymour Simon’s text for older children (for the intended audience) either reading Our Solar System on their own or for parents and teachers reading Our Solar System with or to them (and that I therefore also rate the 2014 revised edition of Our Solar System with a solid four stars).