Giving us bird’s-eye views of such scientists as Galileo, and Torricelli, Oliver Heaviside and Edward Appleton, she also tells appealing stories about real, everyday people, whose jobs give them an opportunity to understand the importance of air in their lives. As Ms. Walker states in one paragraph... "We don't just live in the air. We live because of it." Each person, and each story, builds on the history of the earlier stories, giving us a wonderful depiction of discoveries, knowledge, scientific growth and awareness. Along with these enthralling and true tales, we get a much better insight into modern problems and dilemmas such as global warming and the ozone layer "holes". Even so, she is not presenting the material to be pessimistic, but to create an understanding and appreciation in us.

For example: her story about the little-known Thomas Midgley shows him to be a jaunty, sunny enthusiast, who lived for fresh engineering conundrums, and was lauded to the skies, ironically enough, for his hugely significant discoveries. He died never knowing, as Ms. Walker says, "He would be inadvertently responsible for more damage to Earth's atmosphere than any other single organism that has ever lived." It was bad enough that Midgley invented leaded gasoline; he also invented freon, which was supposed to be safe and inert, but decades later was shown to cause holes in the ozone layer, a part of the ocean of air which protects us from ultraviolet rays. Mesmerizing history, with a modern fallout!

As we read, we come to an easy understanding of each layer of atmosphere, its purpose, its problems, and its significance. Her endnotes, further reading lists and the extensive index make each part of the book very accessible. So when your child, or grandchild, asks the age-old question, where does air come from, you will be able to answer the question, and instill yet another generation with the enthusiasm for scientific knowledge which Ms. Walker encourages in us!