Exploration Book

Describes our explorations of land, sea, and space throughout history and the devices and methods used.

Children's Literature

This slim volume presents a timeline of events, discoveries, and inventions that impact the exploration of land, sea, and space. The historical discussion starts with the earliest known usage of the magnetic compass in 2600 BC and it ends with the SeaStar satellite in 1997 that measures marine plant life in the ocean. The last quarter of the book looks ahead at planned deep-sea, earth, and space explorations. For example, it touches upon future space tourism and the international space station of 2002. Short entries range from discussions of the esoteric, such as the astrolabe, the theodolite, the bathysphere, and the bathyscaph, to the more universally known, such as Peary's trip to the North Pole and Neil Armstrong's trip to the moon. The book is overly ambitious, however, and gives a sketchy overview of subjects that call for in-depth discussion. The timeline does not help the reader to see interrelationships of the various topics. The layout of photos and illustrations is visually jarring and confusing; and legends might clarify when or if the text refers to the pictures. An index and short reading list are included.