Product Review-Bang! The Universe Verse: Book 1

Bang! The Universe Verse: Book 1, James Lu Dunbar, 2009, CreateSpace, ISBN-10: 1449587666, ISBN-13: 978-1449587666, 44 pages

Medium: Paperback book

Age/Grade: Any

Secular/Religious: Secular-little to no mention of religion; may offend some Christian beliefs

Rating: *****

* I hate it
** I don’t like it
*** It’s about average
**** I like it
***** I love it

What do you get when you mix Stephen Hawking, Stan Lee and Shel Silverstein? The answer is James Lu Dunbar and his wonderful account of the Big Bang origin of the universe in comic book form.

After having my interest piqued on an internet forum, I bought this book as a supplement to my children's home education program. I'm always on the lookout for materials that are fun, easy to understand and yet have some real educational value, to complement the more traditional curriculum that I use. "Bang! The Universe Verse Book 1" certainly meets those criteria.

It is written in rhyming poetry in language that my middle school aged children can easily understand and it presents the Big Bang theory quite clearly. Discussing the early and rapid expansion of the universe, concepts of energy force and matter, atomic structure, the formation of the elements, and the structure of the universe, this little book presents these topics in a straightforward manner that anyone can understand, but it doesn't "dumb it down" so much that it becomes useless either.

The drawings are fun and complement the text well, and the whole book has a lighthearted feel to it that should help learners old and young re-discover the joy of science.

I plan to use this for my homeschooling, but I think it would be enjoyable for anyone of school age or older (including adults) who have an interest in science and astronomy. I'm looking forward to books two and three...