A Black Hole Is Not a Hole

If a black hole is not a hole, then what is it? Find out what black holes are, what causes them, and how scientists first discovered them. Learn how astronomers find black holes, get to know our nearest black-hole neighbor, and take a journey that will literally s-t-r-e-t-c-h the mind. Includes a Bonus PDF of illustrations and Photographs from the Book.

About the Author :
Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano has been named a Creative Teaching Partner (specialty: Curriculum and Planning) by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Carolyn is an artist who can work effectively with educators, schools, districts, etc., to help integrate the arts (in this case, writing) into the broader school curriculum. As a child, Carolyn enjoyed reading and writing. She even imagined herself as a writer. As she grew older, however, her interests changed. She decided to teach science, instead. "For the past fifteen or so years, I have been fortunate to work with teachers, museum educators, and educational researchers on fascinating projects. But I have never really stopped writing. I write poetry but don t share it often. I try to write stories, too. And I thoroughly enjoy shaping engaging science books that I hope will capture the reader's imagination on lots of different levels," she said. Carolyn is the author of Leonardo's ABC's (Museum of Science, Boston). She has developed science programs with NASA and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. When she's not writing, she enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and playing games. Carolyn lives in Plympton, Massachusetts, with her husband and two cats, Napi and Emilio.

Review :
Oh, my stars! As the cover proclaims, a black hole may not be an actual hole, but readers will be glad they fell into this book. The volume guides readers on a (literally) out-of-this-world tour, dealing with topics and concepts that, in the hands of a less-gifted writer, might have remained obscure and unclear. DeCristofano handles the material with wit, style and singularly admirable clarity, frequently employing easy-to-understand and, yes, down-to-earth ideas and scenarios to help make complex principles comprehensible to readers of all ages. Carroll's illustrations, diagrams and charts, along with superb telescopic photographs (many courtesy of NASA) are splendid and filled with the drama and excitement of the limitless vastness of space. The handsome design and visuals greatly enhance the text and add much to readers' grasp of the subject. Stargazers will be entranced, and even those not especially attuned to matters celestial will come away feeling smarter, awestruck and with a sense of finally understanding this fascinating, other-worldly phenomenon. An excellent resource. Hole-y astronomy! --Kirkus Reviews, starred review Writing with rare verve ("A black hole is nothing to look at. Literally."), DeCristofano condenses recent astronomical discoveries into a high energy account of what we know or guess about one of the universe's deepest and most unobservable secrets. Covering the life cycle of stars; the formation of black holes and weird optical and physical effects associated with them; more recent revelations of super-sized black holes at the centers of galaxies; and the general effects of mass on space, light, and matter, she presents a clear, well-rounded picture of the strange structure and stranger physics of black holes. After leading a wild ride over a black hole's event horizon ("Right away, you would need a new nickname--something like Stretch . . . .") and explaining theories about gravity from Newton's notions to "Einstein's Spacey Ideas," DeCristofano leaves readers to ponder the truth of her claim that a black hole isn't a hole--but "NOT exactly NOT a hole either." Enhanced by a time line and a generous set of further resources--and illustrated with plenty of cogent diagrams, space photographs, and Carroll's dramatic images of stellar whirlpools and mammoth jets of gas around cores of impenetrable blackness--this book will snatch readers from their orbits and fling them into a lasting fascination with nature's most attractive phenomena. Literally. --Booklist, starred review