Book Review: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet is a must read for a casual space geek. The book is light hearted with many cartoons and hand written letters from disgruntled elementary school students sprinkled inside. The author pokes fun of himself as one of the leaders of the downfall of Pluto as a planet. The book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, does an excellent job of teaching technical science terms in a casual manner that is easy for the lay reader to understand. I would highly recommend this book for any middle or high school student interested in space history.

The last chapter of the book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, is a note to educators on how to teach astronomy to young students that is well worth the read. Tyson suggests that educators teach the planets in terms of density. The inner planets of the solar system are denser than water and will sink if they are placed in a large bowl of water while the large gas planets will float and are less dense than water. Tyson says that Saturn has the approximate density of cork which will float in a bowl of water.

I think this book will make an appearance again when my children are old enough to read and understand this book. At approximately 150 pages it is a fast read with large type, so it will make a great supplementary science reading book. Plus, it is readily available at most public libraries.