Born With a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story

My wife teaches Montessori style and used this as part of her 1st Great Lesson for her Lower Elementary classroom. She LOVED this book. It was easy to read to them with power and drama that is befitting of such a topic and left the children "starstruck".

I wanted a simplified picture book of the Big Bang theory. I know this book is supposed to be a "living book" but I agree with other reviewers - instead of simplifying the concept I feel like this book actually makes it more confusing for young children. I prefer the books One Day a Dot and The Stuff of Stars for young children and I'm still searching for a good book that is the next "level up" for slightly older readers.

As a Montessori Elementary (ages 6 -9) teacher looking for a way to make Maria Montessori's "Great Lessons" come alive, this is a beautiful way to introduce the Cosmic Curriculum. The illustrations and art work are purely amazing. I am not a cosmologist and have very little astronomy or physics academic background, so I can't address the accuracy. Up until Stephen Hawking's, "A Brief History of Time" (published in 1988), this is perfectly in keeping with the scientific consensus up to that time. I do not know what theoretical evolution has emerged since then.This is perfect for reading aloud to students at the beginning of the year, in order to spark the imaginations to explore further in astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry, meteorology, etc. etc. and onward and upwards! The only disappointment is that Jennifer Morgan only wrote three books and never finished the final two of Montessori's "Five Great Lesson." I hope she someday continues the series and writes two more books.

I love this series,. I was not taught the scientific view of creation of the universe, so I find this helpful for making sure my kids know from the youngest of ages that they are a part of a much bigger story. The story of the universe, the story of earth and the story of humans. When kids are VERY young, you can read just the EXTRA LARGE print on each page. As kids get older, you can read the full text. This concept of two levels of education in one book is, well, just brilliant. These books will be a part of our library for many, many years. THANK YOU!

I was hopeful that this book would be a good introduction to the universe for young children. Although the book does go through the theory of how the universe came to be and includes the Big Bang theory and the origin of galaxies, black holes, atoms, planets and stars, it is done in a way that makes me cringe. From the beginning the universe is portrayed in the first person. The universe is also presented as having intentions and dreams about its own future. Those dreams revolve around what is presented as the the ultimate pinnacle of lifeform; humans. Although the book is not overtly religious there is a weird 'master plan' overtone. It's like anthropomorphizing the universe.As examples:The universe 'dreams' of 'birds swooping down on their prey, and I saw you too, gazing at stars'.'Then I suddenly realized, I could BE the things in my dreams''I had made my first atoms. Was I proud of creating hydrogen atoms? You bet I was.''Oh, how I longed to become creatures, including you'.I gave it two stars because the artwork is awesome and I might keep the book so I can cut the pages out (gasp) and use them for kids art projects.

I was excited when I found this because it was so pretty, but it bombed with my 5 year old. Much too wordy, and it labors with metaphors too much.It says 4 as the lower age, but I disagree. Older than the Stars is a kids book of the same topic, but is interesting even to my 3 yr old. I will keep this one on the shelf for a couple years.

I bought this book on the strength of the previous reviews and I'm pleased to report that they didn't lead me astray.The scientific information on cosmology is accurate, the level of detail is just right for elementary schoolers, the graphics are vivid and engaging, and the narrative speaks in an effective personal voice. One could even say that the book has a spiritual dimension of a secular sort (as previous reviews attest, this isn't a book for reductionistic materialists).Most importantly, my daughter really loves this book, as evidenced by her unusually focused attentiveness to the text and her vivid recollection of the graphics. In short, this book was written specifically to engage and teach kids, and it works.Highly recommended to any parent wishing to introduce their child to the basics of cosmology.

This is a great series of books. I leave the details of that greatness to other reviewers. My purpose here is simply to address the notion that these books promote intelligent design, as claimed by the mistaken one-star reviews. Those reviewers apparently couldn't get past the fact that the narrator is the universe, one that has a poetically-licensed imagination that can foresee future possibilities, such as the potential creation of intelligent beings like humans. While this imagination and narration could lead to an intelligent design-type story, it doesn't. That is because the narrating universe doesn't control or plan the incredible changes that it talks about throughout this series of books. The universe is simply a bystander, an amazed one that looks back and explains in scientific terms why those changes took place.

I don't like this book. The science is all there, but the idea of the story being related by "the universe", that was apparently sentient before it existed, and made a conscious decision to explode and form, well itself, offends me a bit.Coupled with stuff like "Now, my dear earthling, make yourself comfortable and let's begin at the very beginning ..." didn't do anything at all for my optimism. And then the pages headed "Discoveries by Earthling scientists" enhanced my gloom.So it came as no surprise to me to find that the author is "an adjunct staff member at Genesis Farm, teaching the Sacred Universe Story.".And a review on the back cover says "Our Universe is the great Being expressing itself in many forms. Some call this Being God; others call it something else. Whatever the name, this story shows that the Universe is profoundly alive."So if you're looking for a book that lets you know that the Big Bang was just the start of a process that enabled humanity to exist because chemicals happened to come together and respond to the environment, I doubt that you'll get much support from this book.Try "Older Than The Stars", but see my review for that and make your own decision.

Wow! What an amazing book. I loved how the history of our universe is told in a story telling format. It is so captivating and intriguing. This is a great resource for intruducing children to how our universe began and arousing their interest to learn more.The illustrations are a Look beautiful and really complement the text.There is even short texts explaining key concepts to support the story.

Beautiful book - text and images are both stunning. Makes children proud to be part of our universe.

So good, really nice way of explaining how to a 4 year old the universe came to be.

Great Story Book About Our Universe.