A Black Hole Is Not a Hole

A decent effort at connecting cosmology with kids. It is a tough sell, and there are off notes, but on balance it works reasonably well.

What an absolutely marvelous book! It is clearly accessible to a young audience, but actually could be enjoyed by anyone of any age. The author does not "dumb down" the subject, nor does she write in the condescending manner very common to science books for children. While not myself a physicist, I

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am widely read in the subject at both the layman and semi-professional level and I did not detect any mistakes, nor any subjects that were glossed over as too complicated. There is a great balance of text and illustrations that I really enjoyed. My only complaint about the book is the title, as it undersells what this book has accomplished as it covers far more than just black holes, but serves as an introduction to many subjects: gravity, astronomical distances, mass and density, formation and life history of stars, gravitational lensing, x-ray astronomy, radio astronomy, and more. I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants an introduction to modern astronomy.

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Written for children and right-wing science-phobes, A Black Hole is NOT a Hole is lavishly illustrated, well-written book that will appeal to the budding astronomer in your family. The author does a nice job slowly introducing a little technical jargon, usually after explaining a concept like Event

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Horizon in simpler terms. Without getting into mathematical terms and formulas, DeCristofano does a splendid job taking information from the complicated minds of astrophysicists and reducing it to easily-digestible bites that a reasonably smart kid can follow and understand.

The book is complete with a glossary of terms, a timeline describing notable events in the formation of modern-day black hole theory, and several pages of reference of and resources. I like that the author made several references to how theory evolves and changes over time, even suggesting that there could be new developments by the time the reader has read this book. This impresses upon kids that science is a constantly changing process, where fundamental ideas can change through the introduction of new evidence. It's a splendid message to be sure.

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The author Carolyn DeCristofano has made the complex subject of black holes accessible in this great children's book. Starting with the simple and understandable comparison to a whirlpool, the book rapidly introduces the reader to concepts of gravity, the end of life cycle of stars, why nothing can

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escape the event horizon, and the history of theory and observations supporting the theories. I like the time line of the scientific discoveries at the back of the book. The illustrations are both interesting and accurate and help move the reader through the science. This book would be a great introduction for an aspiring young scientist or anyone curious about what sits at the center of the Milky Way and most other galaxies.

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As soon as this arrived and I opened it, my two younger sons age 7 and 10 snatched this up and devoured it. When I finally got a chance to flip through it, I found myself impressed with the ability to take a complex subject, bring it down to a level younger children can understand yet keep me

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interested (and I'm not new to astronomy). Nice illustrations and photos, nice explanations of complex topics. Great book that I'm sure my children will pull down off the shelf from time to time.

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Excellent.

I received this book today via the Early Reviewers program. When my teenaged daughter saw it, she got immediately interested and started reading it - and found it entertaining, pulling her to continue reading. Not as strong a pull as that of a black hole, though. She came out

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eventually.

For an adult, it's obviously a quick read. At points I thought it would have been good to have pointers to further information. For example, where there's mention of "a blip in Mercury's orbit", there's no lead to further insight. Not that this matters anymore in the age of instantaneous online searches...

Overall, highly recommended.

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A conversational and humorous tone makes this book not only educational but appealing to read. Carolyn DeCristofano breaks down an overwhelming subject into easy-to-digest pieces and explains what black holes are, how they form, and how we discovered them. Extensive back matter includes an AWESOME

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author's note that tells how she researched the book and emphasizes the fact that ongoing scientific research means that science facts change often.

Highly recommended for young scientists! Pair it with THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE by Ellen Jackson and Nic Bishop.

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This was a fun book about something that 'sucks'. The material is approached in a way that young people will enjoy and learn at the same time. I am not young and I enjoyed the book. The artwork is very cool. I wanted to rip out pages and stick them on my wall.

I had seen this book listed on the Early Reviewers a couple months ago, and I made a mental note to try and find it. Luckily, my library had a copy and I put a request in. This is a juvenile nonfiction book, which I was a little disheartened about, thinking that it was geared for adults, but I went

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ahead and checked it out anyway. And I am glad that I did.

This is a great book for astronomy and physics novices who are curious about learning about black holes, or for a student learning about the cosmos – this book is wonderful for all readers. This 70 page book is chalk full of facts, beautiful illustrations, and relatable analogies that give readers a fantastic summary of what exactly a black hole is. I really learned a lot about black holes. Now, I have a better understanding of the singularity, the extreme gravity zone, and the event horizon (the three main parts of a black hole).

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A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole is a children's book on black holes. The author, Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano, seeks to answer the question "Then what is it?" She carefully explains what it is, how a black hole works, and how they are discovered. Along the way, she explains how scientists work, gives

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some interest examples, and encourages readers to preform thought experiments.

This book would be a terrific book for any 8-12 year old children interested in astronomy or just black holes. The text is clearly written, but never talks down to the reader, and written in a friendly, casual tone. The information given is carefully explained with outstanding illustrations to accompany it. The book flows smoothly from one chapter to the next. One of the most interesting and surprising parts was the Author's Note "How Do I Know" where DeCristofano explains how she did her research and where she got her information.

The only thing this book lacked, and I'm being picky, would be a few more side-bars where she could have introduced slightly more complicated material for more advanced readers. I would have also liked to see specific references given in the text so readers would be encouraged to find out more. Both of these are minor concerns.

Overall, this is a fine juvenile book on black holes and I have already recommended it to someone with younger children.

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I laughed when I read the reviewer right below me; the same exact thing happened to me. I thought this was an adult book but it is actually a children's book for the Fourth or Fifth grade reading level. The book actually was fairly informative, even if the information is presented in a slightly

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more juvenile delivery. I would definitely recommend this book to parents of a child interested in science and in the previously mentioned grades. The information is accurate and presented in a well illustrated and entertaining manner!

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A fantastic children's book about black holes. It explains how they form, how they work, and includes a section that describes what would happen if you were to 'visit' a black hole. Honestly, even though it is a book for kids, I think most adults would enjoy reading it (and would even learn a new

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thing or two). The explanations are very clear, presented in a great format with terrific illustrations. Highly recommended, especially for kids who think that science books are dry, boring, and difficult to understand.

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I got this book through the LT Early Reviewer program. When I requested it I didn't realize that it wasn't an "adult" level book. Nevertheless I was not greatly disappointed. Although short and easy to read, this book is a remarkably complete look at the science of black holes, and does not avoid

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the complicated issues.

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This book is a Junior Library Guild Selection, intended for youngsters ages 9-12. Its syntax, sentence structure, and vocabulary are such that my 9 year old grandson had no difficulty reading it aloud to me. Not surprisingly, it contains no equations. It is beautifully illustrated (by Michael

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Carroll) with lots of little asides and questions to focus the attention of young readers.

Most books about black holes are pretty recondite, so to make the material understandable to a nine year old is an accomplishment. The book describes the essential nature of black holes as regions of extremely powerful gravitational force caused by extremely dense concentrations of matter. It also describes how we currently believe black holes are formed and it narrates a little of the history of the concept. In doing so, the author gives the reader a flavor of the scientific method and shows how scientific understanding progresses through challenging previously accepted concepts.

It also does a nice job of describing how far away from earth black holes are. I used that section of the book to teach my grandson scientific notation for large numbers. The book also contains a comprehensive, well written glossary of scientific terms and concepts discussed.

The author effectively injects humor to stimulate a young mind’s interest. For example, she posits that the reader may ask the question, “Is a black hole a hole?” Her answer, “Read the title, genius.”

This is a good introduction to a hot field of scientific research and controversy. In addition to the glossary, the book includes a timeline of discoveries related to black holes and a guide to further resources.

(JAB)

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A black hole - one of the most intriguing, yet misunderstood things in the universe. Children especially find the idea both fascinating and exhilerating; as a teacher of children I have first hand experience with children using black holes as a device to banish their nemeses, or turn into spaghetti

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noodles as they are sucked into the hole of inevitable doom.

In A Black Hole Is Not a Hole, Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano points out exactly what the title says, and then offers fascinating pages explaining the science and logic of black holes. She explains not only what black holes are, but how they form, what scientists know, where they are located, what would happen were a person to visit one, and the history of the scientists' theories and discoveries. All of this information is packed tightly into a beautifully illustrated book which will entice younger children with the pictures, and educate them as they grow and learn more about the illustrations. Not only that, but the writing is fluid and engaging, which will attract and keep the older readers hooked long enough to finish the book quickly.

The book ends with a timeline of studying blackholes, a glossary, and most importantly a short bibliography/recommended reading for further information. This not only allows the reader to find out more information about black holes, but it sneakily educates them about bibliographies and resources for future studies in science.

For any student even remotely interested in science, this book will pique his interest and keep him engaged and curious about the possibilities of space and our universe. With the beautiful illustrations it will engage and bring students into the world of science who otherwise would not be interested. Although it is recommended for children and young teenagers, it is packed with enough information that many adults would be entertained enough to read and become interested in the ideas presented as well.

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This is a survey book about black holes, describing what they are and how they work, what it would be like to visit one, and how they were predicted and discovered. The illustrations are primarily done by computer, but are engaging and descriptive. One of the positive features is the captioning,

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which generally states when the image is an artist's illustration. The photo credits at the end of the book tell the reader where the real pictures are from. DeCristofano is an engaging and clear writer, and uses humor fairly effectively (her jokes are almost all at least a little funny, which is no mean feat).
The one problem I had with the book was the lack of mathematical formulae and numbers. From reading other books about black holes, I know a lot of the features can be demonstrated with equations that are not too particularly complex. One particular instance of this concerns an unexplained observation by the author that one could come much closer to a larger black hole without suffering from intense gravitational tidal forces. Earlier, in a cogent and well-illustrated explanation of gravity, the author says basically why this is the case (Because gravity is exponentially more intense the closer the objects are. Since the event horizon (the edge) of a black hole increases proportionately with its mass, and gravity's force is decreasing exponentially the further one is from the center, the horizon of a very massize black hole would be correspondingly very far from its center, so far that the force of gravity would be very weak, and one could safely fly right up to that edge. So roughly speaking, if m=e (mass is equivalent to distance to the edge of the black hole) and g=m/e^3 (force of gravity is equal to the mass divided by the distance to the edge cubed), we can see for a very large m, we would have a very large e, and thus a very small g. DeCristofano has all the pieces to explain this, and though I admit it is her decision as to whether to use her space to do so, I do feel that she should have omited this observation or explained it, rather than leaving it for the student to guess if it is appropriate to put two and two together.
Aside from this, I found the scope of the book to be very appropriate. DeCristofano does an excellent job of explaining light and gravity, and she covers everything about a black hole that I would expect (except for the above paragraph). There is a two page insert with five different black holes, complete with illustrations or images, statistics, and fun facts, which I think is an excellent way to personalize the material. The descriptions of the birth of radio astronomy, and how Einstein developed relativity, are appropriate and explanatory.
One feature I particularly enjoyed was an image of the nightime sky at the beginning of the chapter with the stars connected by the lines demonstrating their constellations. Two constellations (Cygnus and Sagittarius) which were very important in the discovery of black holes are outline by the image of a swan and a centaur archer. Many children's books of astronomy might have some kind of sky map, but it is usually very poor in quality and explanation, and I believe this makes it difficult for children to make the connection that what they are looking at in their book is actually in the sky, and they could go outside on a clear night, look up, and point at it. I felt this illustration was a clear enough sky map that not much knowledge would be required to use it as a map and point to Cygnus X-1 (not that you could see it!), etc.
The author's note explaining her research method and the bibliography are excellent, as is a four page timeline, and I would recommend this book for fairly advanced middle schoolers and most any high schooler. It could be a introduction to cause children to want to learn some basic astronomical terms and concepts, or it could be a used in conjunction with a summative assessment to see if students understand these ideas. Additionally, this book is such an excellent example of a nonfiction survey book that I think an English class could use it as such in a unit on nonfiction, were there to be a nonfiction class that would do so. The only reasons I would recommend the adoption of some other book would be if you wanted one written more for eleventh and twelth graders, or if there was one that was otherwise as good as this one, but with a bit more math.

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An excellent presentation and explanation of a complicated subject. Coversational, entertaining and informative with great illustrations.

This book introduces in simple ways what a black hole is and how they work. It starts with an example of a whirlpool and slowly builds to discuss how light bends around black holes, how we detect them here from earth, and how they are created. I don’t have any conclusions to make seeing as this

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was an educational and scientific book based in the authors understanding of scientific fact. The book is set up in a way that it slow introduces and describes the characteristics of a black hole. It begins with the most simple to understand and builds on top of that. There is also a glossary, index, timeline, and author notes.
Classroom use: Very useful for engaging youth in space science

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This book was made to provide children information about black holes in a fun and easy to understand way. It gives information about what black holes are, where they come from, how we first invented it, how far away is the nearest one, and much more. It's purpose is to give information that is not

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too overwhelming.

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A Black Hole is Not a Hole, by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano, is a delightful book directed at the young adult audience that could also legitimately serve as a fine introduction to the topic for anyone. I don’t typically read or review books in this category, but in this case the book was obtained

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as part of an early reviewers program, so I had the obligation to both read and review it.
I have always been fascinated by the notion of black holes, which smack of the mysterious if not quite magical, and as an adult I have read widely on this as well as the latest in cosmology – at least until interspersed in the pages I have hit the twin brick walls of advanced physics and higher mathematics that form both the foundations to modern astronomy and the often impenetrable road blocks (if you will forgive the mixed metaphor) that impede the lay reader from a more vigorous study. Physicists like Stephen Hawking and Sean Carroll write books on cosmology directed at the popular audience, but that popular audience must still have a better grip on the basics of math and physics than most people actually can claim, so the material remains frustratingly obscure to many.
I suspect that young adult readers are closer to the tools of science and mathematics required to better explore cosmology because they are experiencing it in the classroom real-time. Even so, the subject of black holes is inherently complex. Enter DeCristofano’s A Black Hole is Not a Hole, sumptuously illustrated by Michael Carroll, which offers an outstanding overview of the topic suitable for young adult readers and their older counterparts. DeCristofano manages to make the subject matter accessible without dumbing it down, a critical achievement when writing in the realm of science, and she succeeds magnificently both in exploring black holes and fixing their place in the universe in a compact volume that appeals to all ages. Key concepts are highlighted and underscored with both photographs and beautiful illustrations, and the text carries the reader along effortlessly so that these concepts serve as building blocks for the greater understanding of the centrality of black holes in current cosmological models. I highly recommend it for all audiences.

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Great book on what a black hole really is. Full of fun imagery, it's not your ordinary science book. Full of information about the universe. It would be very entertaining for young children who might be struggling with the ideas of black holes. There are so many misconceptions.

This is great book to start out lesson on black holes or start a unit on space, the tone is conversational that allows for read a loud.

A fantastic nonfiction book for elementary/middle school kids. The writing is breezy and fun, but the information is still thorough and complex. This book is smart with a sense of humor and is a great introduction to astronomy in general and black holes in particular.

This book explaining Black Holes was read to us during a Children's Literature in-class session.