Overview, Young Explorer's Edition: A New Way of Seeing Earth

by Benjamin Grant, Sandra Markle

Overview

Discover Earth as you've never seen it before, in this stunning and unique collection of satellite images that offer an unexpected look at our planet. A perfect gift for young National Geographic fans and atlas enthusiasts!

When astronauts look down at our planet and see its vibrant surface shining against the blackness of space, they experience the Overview Effect—a sense of awe, an awareness that everything is interconnected, and an overwhelming desire to take care of our one and only home.

Overview: Young Explorer's Edition, newly adapted for young readers from the adult book Overview, captures this sense of wonder and shares it with readers without having to leave the ground. Extraordinary aerial photographs reveal Earth's natural beauty and show the surprising, fascinating, and destructive ways humans have impacted our environment. This eye-opening visual journey will forever change the way we see our home planet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984832023
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	600,999
Product dimensions:	10.60(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1210L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Benjamin Grant is the author of Overview and the founder of Daily Overview on Instagram, from which the book takes its inspiration. His daily posts have both delighted and challenged his audience from around the globe since 2013. Benjamin graduated from Yale University, where he studied history and art history and rowed on the heavyweight crew team. He lives and rides his bike in San Francisco. You can follow along on Instagram at @dailyoverview, or learn more at dailyoverview.com.

Sandra Markle is the author of more than 200 children's books, which have won numerous awards, including Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, IRA/CBC Children's Choice, NSTA/CBC Outstanding Trade Books for Children, NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended, and ALA Notable Books for Children. She lives in Florida. You can follow her on Twitter @SANDRA_MARKLE or discover more at WRITE ON! SANDRA MARKLE http://sandra-markle.blogspot.com.

Editorial Reviews

07/29/2019

Invoking the spirit of Earthrise, astronaut Bill Anders’s epoch-marking photo of Earth from space, Grant’s collection of breathtaking satellite photos offers a mind-altering shift in perspective adapted for young readers. Grouped by theme, the first section, “An Amazing Earth,” focuses on the Earth’s wonders, and the second, “An Amazing Earth and Us,” reveals the dramatic impacts of human life on the planet. The crisp photos mesmerize (the ferocious froth of Niagara Falls) and sober (a patchwork marking relentless rainforest devastation in Brazil). Concise captions explain each image, and reiterate the idea of human responsibility: “With this new perspective comes understanding. I believe that if we come together and use this knowledge thoughtfully, we will create a better future for our one and only home.” Ages 8–12. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

An inspiring . . . always richly thought-provoking exploration of our shared home.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Grant’s collection of breathtaking satellite photos offers a mind-altering shift in perspective adapted for young readers. The crisp photos mesmerize.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 2019-07-24
While satellite photographs of Earth may seem like an everyday sight, this collection, adapted from Grant's Overview: A New Perspective of Earth (2016), is far from mundane.

The images are rich in saturated color and even more impressive in their tantalizing diversity, including artificial structures that range from an immense parking lot beside a Montgomery, Alabama, car factory to a stunning image of Palm Jumeirah (human-crafted islands in Dubai)—and before-and-after images of wildfire damage to a suburb in California. Photos of the natural world are even more remarkable. Even from space, Niagara Falls is immense and powerful. Mount Fuji rises above the landscape with its gaping, snow-filled crater. River deltas in their intricate tracery, the drought-ravaged landscape of South Africa, and tulip fields of the Netherlands in full bloom—each image inspires thoughtful examination. While numerous landscapes are included for their pure beauty, many more illustrate powerful lessons on the changes humankind has wrought on the face of the Earth: They are vivid admonitions on climate change, deforestation, and pollution. At times the fairly small text is presented on a dark background that's dramatic in appearance but challenging to read, but this is a small quibble. Fine backmatter includes an index that provides map coordinates for each illustrated site. Using these, readers can travel via Google to more detailed information.

An inspiring, sometimes frightening, always richly thought-provoking exploration of our shared home. (Nonfiction. 8-18)

Kirkus Reviews