When you’re learning about science, nothing beats looking at real photographs and realistic illustrations instead of cartoons. I’m so grateful that National Geographic has books designed for children, and many have been translated to Chinese. Last year, I bought two National Geographic Astronomy Books in Chinese. Since then, my daughter has been fascinated by the beauty and wonder of the Solar System. I’m excited to show you the inside of National Geographic: Little Kids First Big Book – Space. Then, we’ll take a peek at the National Geographic 13 Planets book in Chinese!
Book Review #1: 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)
ISBN: 9787534276729 (simplified version)
Publisher: National Geographic Children’s Books
Language versions and Where to Buy:
- Simplified Chinese with pinyin, no English
- Amazon
- China Sprout (United States) (can also get the other National Geographic books for kids here)
- Tmall (single book)
- Tmall (full set with other National Geographic Big Books for Kids)
- Popular Bookstore (Singapore)
- Traditional Chinese: books.com.tw
- English: Amazon
Recommended age: 3-8 years
This book is the perfect introduction to Outer Space for preschoolers and lower elementary school students. Five chapters cover the following topics:
- Earth, moon, and sun
- Other planets
- Dwarf planets, comets, and asteroid belts
- Universe, the Milky Way, stars, galaxies, and black holes
- 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.
Below is the 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 and the pinyin is small and relatively unobtrusive. I was pleasantly surprised that my daughter can read many parts of this book on her own! She has not learned pinyin yet, but the content in much of the book is fairly basic.
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!
Book Review #2: National Geographic 13 Planets
Title: 国家地理 (Guójiā dìlǐ / National Geographic) 13颗行星 (13 Kē xíngxīng / 13 Planets)
ISBN: 9787539761602 (Simplified Chinese)
Author: David Aguilar
Publisher: National Geographic Children’s Books
Language versions and where to buy:
- Simplified Chinese with no pinyin and almost no English
- Traditional Chinese: books.tw.com
- English: Amazon
Recommended age: 8-12 years
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.
Here’s a peek at the 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.
Finally, here are the back covers of both of these books.
In summary, if you don’t have any National Geographic Solar system books yet, I highly recommend them!
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 – Our nanny DIY’d the solar system story stones with this acrylic paint and rocks from our yard 🙂
- Solar system magnets
- Solar system puzzle – 48 pieces
- Solar system puzzle – 100 pieces
- Solar system puzzle – 200 pieces 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.
For another amazing Chinese Solar system resource, check out my review of 我们的太空 and enter the giveaway (details in that post on how to win it)!
You can see my full list of Chinese book recommendations for toddlers and lower elementary aged children here!
As always, I welcome your favorite book recommendations and any other suggestions! Feel free to leave a comment or contact me by email!
Happy learning, friends!
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