Johannes Kepler

John Hudson Tiner dones a fine job of writing this easy reading book of Kepler's life. I cannot comment on how well he makes the subject matter easy to understand for the intended audience, since I am not experienced in that area, but I can tell it is a great book for high school and older -- a book written for young people that adults can read without feeling like it is written beneath them. One great feature of this book, and other books by Tiner in this series, is the fact that he explains scientific facts in such a way that those not familiar with them can gain an understanding of some of the contributions of this man to astronomy. Pictures, some from Kepler's works, throughout the book make the book even more valuable.Any biography on Kepler is not true to the man if his faith and science are separated. Raised in a less than ideal family situation, Kepler lived in incredible times so far as the fighting over religious beliefs is concerned. Though he held firmly to and held dearly his own faith and gave up much because of it, he did not wish to become involved in the fighting over it. He also freely acknowledged that God gained glory from whatever scientific study he did. Kepler's contribution to astonomy was immense. As an example, he was provided with much needed observational data from Tycho that allowed him to determine the orbital path of Mars (around the Sun). This opened the door to determine the orbital path of other heavenly bodies as well. At one point he was motivated to discover the truth about the heavenly bodies to help dispel the superstition that caused his own mother to be tried inappropriately as a witch.This book provides a good starting point for learning about the life of Kepler. Such reading is wholesome and inspiring and good for teaching excellent values in life. To continue my study of Kepler, I am presently reading the book on him titled Kepler by Max Casper, Dover pub., 1993, a book clearly written for adults which includes much more detail. Tiner's book was a good preliminary for this latter book.