A brilliant and imaginative book for 10 to 12 year olds which paints a fascinating picture of the comparative scale of phenomena in our world, from the vast to the infinitesimal. Ages 10+.
Mary Gribbin works in education in East Sussex and writes books about science for children. She won The TES Junior Information Book Award for her book Time and the Universe, and has written a series of books for Ladybird. She has also worked with John Gribbin on Being Human, Ice Age, and major biographies of Richard Feynman and Robert FitzRoy, as well as the "in 90 minutes" series of mini-biographies of Galileo, Newton, Halley, Faraday, Darwin, Mendel, Curie, and Einstein.
She has written for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including She, Cosmopolitan, and the Guardian, has a degree in psychology and has worked for twenty years with children of all ages from 4 to 16. In an earlier incarnation, she was at one time the youngest County Councillor in England. Her other interests include floristry, antiques, and interior design.
This was a fun book to read. Don't be fooled by the drawings in it--many substantial topics are covered ranging from subnuclear particles, fractals and geohistory. What's great about the book is even the most complex thing are explained clearly and with great clarity. There is also lots of information about the history of science and one of the best explanations of Avogadro's Number I've ever read. It is appropriate for sophisticated high schoolers and up I think. I relearned a lot about science I had forgotten and some new things.