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You are here: Home / Favorite Books / National Geographic Solar System Books in Chinese

National Geographic Solar System Books in Chinese

By Betty
March 2, 2018

2 Mar
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National Geographic has numerous books for children of all ages, and many have been translated to Chinese! Last year, after buying 2 National Geographic solar system books in Chinese my daughter has been fascinated by the beauty and wonder of the universe!

When you’re learning about science, nothing beats amazing and real photographs and realistic illustrations instead of cartoons.  I’m excited to show you the inside of these amazing Chinese National Geographic Solar System Books!

National Geographic Solar System Books for Kids in Chinese

Chinese Solar System Book: National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book – Space

  • Title: 国家地理 (Guójiā dìlǐ / National Geographic) 太空百科 (Tàikōng bǎikē / Space Encyclopedia)
  • Publisher: National Geographic Children’s Books
  • Language versions and where to Buy:
    • Simplified Chinese with pinyin, no English / ISBN: 9787534276729
      • Amazon
      • China Sprout (United States) (can get other National Geographic books for kids here)
    • English: Amazon
  • Recommended age: 3-8 years

National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book – Space

This book is the perfect introduction to outer space for preschoolers and lower elementary school students.  Five chapters cover the following topics:

  1. Earth, moon, and sun
  2. Other planets
  3. Dwarf planets, comets, and asteroid belts
  4. Universe, the Milky Way, stars, galaxies, and black holes
  5. Space exploration

Most of the images are realistic drawings, but a few are photographs from telescopes and probes.  For each planet, its size, terrain/atmosphere, temperature, moons, and satellites/probes are discussed.

National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book - Space
National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book - Space - Table of Contents

Here are some pictures of the inside of the book.  The images are beautiful!  You can also see that the font is relatively large; meanwhile, the Hanyu Pinyin is small and relatively unobtrusive.  I was pleasantly surprised that my daughter can read many of the Chinese characters in this solar system book on her own!  (We are waiting to introduce Hanyu Pinyin since we want to have a good foundation of Chinese characters first.)

National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book - Space - Insdie of the Book

The only problem I have with this book is that the last page of the book depicts the orbits as perfect circles.  When I mentioned elliptical orbits to my daughter, she immediately disagreed with me.  She said that I was wrong because of the last page of the book (photo above).  So I had to explain to her that the illustration was simplified for the book, which goes to show how important it is to convey information as accurately as possible to children of all ages.

Otherwise, this is a very beloved book of my daughter’s and the book that got her curious about Outer Space!

Chinese Solar System Book Review: National Geographic 13 Planets

  • Title: 国家地理 (Guójiā dìlǐ / National Geographic) 13颗行星 (13 Kē xíngxīng / 13 Planets)
  • Author: David Aguilar
  • Publisher: National Geographic Children’s Books
  • Language versions and where to buy:
    • Simplified Chinese with no pinyin and almost no English / ISBN: 9787539761602
      • China Sprout
      • TMall (part of a set with other National Geographic books)
    • Traditional Chinese: books.tw.com
    • English: Amazon
  • Recommended age: 8-12 years

National Geographic 13 Planets in Chinese

Since my daughter loved the first book above, I knew I had to get more books about the solar system.  Finding realistic, non-cartoon books in Chinese is not easy!  This book is far too advanced due to complexity of the content and our current reading skill.   However, the translation seems overall accurate according to our Chinese teacher.

Still, the main reason we love it is for the stunning illustrations and photographs.  There’s so much to observe and discuss with the images alone!  My daughter likes browsing the book on her own and finding familiar words.

National Geographic 13 Planets - Front Cover

Here’s a peek at the Table of Contents:

National Geographic 13 Planets - Table of Contents

Here are some examples of the inside of the book!  As you can see, only the subtitles have English translations.  The rest has no pinyin or English.  Also they do a much better job showing the elliptical nature of orbits.

National Geographic 13 Planets

Finally, here are the back covers of both of these books.

National Geographic for Kids

In summary, if you don’t have any National Geographic Solar system books yet, I highly recommend them!

More solar system learning activities

To supplement the solar system learning unit, I recommend the following materials:

  • NASA Earth and Space Postcards
  • NASA Earth and Space Coloring Book
  • Solar system story stones – Inspired by @acraftyliving, our nanny painted the solar system story stones with this acrylic paint and rocks from our yard 🙂
Solar system story stones - 8 planets + moon
Painted solar system story stones inspired by @acraftyliving
  • Solar system magnets
  • 48-Piece solar system puzzle
  • 100-Piece Solar system puzzle
  • 200-Piece Solar system puzzle 

Of these 3 puzzles, the last one is the best in my opinion.  The pictures are most realistic and show the planets in proper order.

Related: Favorite puzzles for kids of all ages

More science books for kids

  • Review of 我们的太空 3-D Solar System Book
  • Chinese Magic School Bus Picture and Chapter Books
  • Human Body Books for Kids in Chinese, English, and Korean
  • iSuper Science Leveled Readers with Big Font
  • English and Chinese Dinosaur Books for Kids of All Ages!

Happy reading, friends!


4 Comments

About Betty

I'm a Chinese-American mom who is having fun teaching my children Mandarin Chinese while re-learning the language myself. I love coming up with creative, hands-on, and educational activities, and I hope these ideas help your children have fun learning Chinese!

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Dr. Betty Choi CHALK Academy - 2

Hi! I’m Betty, a Chinese-American mom, believer, pediatrician, and writer.  I’m having fun learning Chinese with my children, and I love sharing multilingual resources and teaching tips!  I hope these ideas can help your family or school! Read More…

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