Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A wonderful beginner friendly book that discusses some of the most fascinating questions about our galaxy, planets and cosmos in general. It is well written and accessible for lay people, with minimal jargon and complicated science, yet it is still entertaining and the accompanying pictures and photos are absolutely gorgeous. I have read a lot of non-fiction books about astronomy and astrophysics, but all those books didn't have much of a visual representation. Although I haven't learned much of a new information from Astroquizzical (the book being an introductory read after all), I greatly enjoyed this book because of the stunning photos.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an easy and accessible book about astronomy or if you have kids who want learn more about space and universe.

This gorgeous book is fun and fascinating, full of interesting facts that a layperson can understand. It is also overwhelming, since it really shows the immensity of our universe. It’s structured as a family tree, with Earth, the Sun, the Milky Way and so on until, possibly, infinity. The illustrations include beautiful pictures and informative diagrams. Surprisingly, it finally made me grasp many concepts that I had read about in other books, but that I had failed to grasp, including time in space. The author asks many questions about the universe. Some, she answers outright but most don’t have easy solutions so she provides different theories, A few of the issues she raises are unknowable, at least for now. This is the perfect book for people interested in space, regardless of your training or knowledge base.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/#The MIT Press!

I absolutely loved this book. It lays out complex astrophysical and astronomical phenomenon in language that laypeople can totally understand. Astronomy and physics have never really clicked for me, but this book totally did. I found each chapter fascinating and very readable. As someone who writes science fiction, this book sparked a bunch of ideas in my head. And the stunning images only added to the experience for me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC, I think this is one I'm actually going to buy.

This is a fantastic book for people who are interested in learning about space. It has a decent amount of technical detail, enough to make it "science". However, it is not so difficult to grasp that it reads like a textbook. It’s perfect or for anyone who wants to learn more about the Universe. The photographs in the book are so beautiful and inspiring.

The book goes through Earth’s story; starting with the planet itself, moving on to the Solar System, the Milky Way galaxy and the Universe as a whole. It takes us on an outer space adventure, from planetary formation, creation of the stars and even black holes.

The author does an excellent job of explaining difficult concepts without "dumbing it down" too much. The voice is light, which makes the book fun to read. The author includes questions too, to get you to think about the topics presented. These are a fun way to make the book interactive. The book is a great starting point to leave one wanting to continue his or her education on the topic. I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in outer space!

Special thank you to Netgalley and MIT Press for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting and very colourful journey through the universe. Topics are presented in small bite sized chunks, with plenty of colour illustrations alongside the text. This would make an excellent coffee table or reference book.

"Astroquizzical" by Jillian Scudder is an easy to understand reference to many of the key points of astronomy. The book is organized in an FAQ-like format and includes lusciously beautiful photos and illustrations. The questions themselves are logically ordered into (1) The Sky From Home, (2) The Moon, (3) The Solar System, (4) Stars, (5) Stellar Deaths, (6) Galaxies, and (7) The Universe. The book also has ten thought experiments which explore certain concepts in more detail such as mechanisms that might allow for the spread of life in the solar system, time dilation near the speed of light, the shape of the universe, and more.

The writing and science level feels just about right for a motivated middle school student, and the book itself would certainly be a welcome addition to the reference section of any school library. In particular, this book would appear to the kind of astro-curious child (of any age) who enjoys reading encyclopedias.

This book touched on nearly every interesting thing about astronomy that I can think of such as dark matter, black holes, super nova, the big bang, time dilatation, the birth/life/death of stars, galaxies, SETI, sunspots, and much more. Again, the astrophotography is stunning. Although I do think the book could have benefited from including a bit more terminology and detail. For example, I think would have been fine to identify which supernova are Type I and which are Type II, etc. I was a little disappointed there wasn't much discussion of how the brightness of Type IA supernova are important in identifying distances.

This was a fun book to read and was a nice review of the foundations of astronomy. I thank the author and publisher for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this book.,

Noticing that I was weak on Jeopardy's cosmology questions, I was delighted to get this galley copy, which is a lavishly, gorgeously illustrated layman's guide to complex questions about the universe, galaxy and near space, from the prospect of life on Mars, the three-body interaction, how GPS works and the fundamental experiments that show how the universe is expanding and the earth is not flat. This is a useful, well-organized and explained primer to astronomy and physics.