Stories of the Constellations: Myths and Legends of the Night Skies

by Kieron Connolly

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Melissa Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hard to find, but by far a favorite of ours among the variety of children's constellation books. The stories accompanying each constellation are short and concise, enough to provide a starting point for those who really want to dig into each story. The author also provides a few quick facts with each that identify key points of the myths or legends along with popular variations of the stories. The images provided for each featured constellation are clear, allowing a reader to identify what the constellation should look like in the sky as well as the image mythology has assigned those stars. The star maps throughout the book are helpful as well, showing the location of each constellation in relation to other stars in the sky. The only drawback would be the constant mention of death and torment making the book not well suited for sensitive children, but true to classic mythology. Also note, this book does not include all 88 constellations.

[Dion Yulianto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kisah-kisah mitologis (kebanyakan dari Yunani kuno) terkait penamaan dari rasi bintang populer seperti Scorpio, Beruang Besar, Biduk Penceng, Waluku, Gemini, dan lain-lain. Bagaimana orang zaman kuno menamai bintang-bintang di langit malam, dan lalu menggunakannya sebagai petunjuk arah atau pertanda pergantian musim, bahkan juga berkembang ke ranah astrologi atau peramalan nasib menggunakan pedoman bintang-bintang, digambarkan di buku ini. Lengkap dengan peta bintang sehingga kita bisa tahu gugusan bintang yang kemudian membentuk rasi tertentu. Penamaan rasi bintang ternyata berbeda untuk setiap tempat dan budaya. Dijelaskan juga sedikit kisah di balik penamaan rasi-rasi bintang tersebut (yang sebagian besar berbasis pada mitologi Yunani kuno). Paling unik adalah bagaimana kita bisa menemukan suatu rasi bintang di langit malam. Dicetak dengan kertas berkilau sehingga gambar-gambar rasi bintangnya semakin terlihat cemerlang.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has basic ideas of the stories for constellations downside is that the constellations are all just thrown in there there's no order except alphabetical so you don't know which ones are more important than others for calendaring are other reasons and the stories are kind of short and jumbled

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love how you get the story with the constellation and it's not too lengthy. Good if you just want a simple explanation for the constellation.