A soaring imaginary journey for young readers wondering about their places in space.
On a broad, continuous, accordion-folded strip tucked between oversize covers, an excursion from the Earth’s surface to the far reaches of the solar system and back.
Beginning and ending with the dark-skinned, green-eyed child on the cover, Zommer’s painted illustrations lead readers’ eyes upward past high-rise buildings and through the atmosphere’s layers to the International Space Station, then on beyond to the moon and the planets. Then, after pausing to regard the distant stars and the Milky Way, the journey back allows glimpses of comets and meteoroids, types of clouds, migrating birds of several species, mountain sheep, and swooping hang gliders before coming to rest on a grassy hilltop. The artist adds details aplenty to spot along the way, from paper airplanes and space telescopes to small human figures (in the terrestrial scenes) with, mostly, brown or solid black faces. Printed in undulating clusters of type that suggest flowing winds and rounded orbits, Gullain’s narrative reads with natural ease from bottom to top up to the midway point, then descends—tallying wonders while pointing out street signs and window cleaners, a cutaway Soyuz capsule, each planet, and other details as it goes and also keeping track of heights and distances.
A soaring imaginary journey for young readers wondering about their places in space. (atmosphere chart) (Informational novelty. 6-10)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-910277-69-0
Page Count: 20
Publisher: words & pictures
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
A stilted, if worthy, celebration desperately in need of better writing and art.
An appreciation of our planet as a protective and nurturing “big house.”
“We all live together in harmony on the land,” writes Lee with rather more lyricism than strict accuracy. The author then goes on to tally our planet’s range of climates and environments, trace the water cycle, describe the atmosphere, and explain why we have seasons. Translation (uncredited) issues aren’t all that hobble this Korean import, but such lines as “On Earth, many things always happen,” and “The air traps the hot solar heat” likely read better in the original. More problematically, the illustrator represents humanity with a crudely drawn, pale-skinned child with dark hair and clownishly heavy red lips; the generic settings teem with equally generic flora and smiling fauna. Also, the schematic view of Earth’s orbit around the sun is hard to parse, as it lacks directional arrows or (aside from a confusingly stylized deciduous tree) seasonal labels. The author restates the “harmony” theme, then closes with “Thank you, Earth!”
A stilted, if worthy, celebration desperately in need of better writing and art. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-939248-22-0
Page Count: 30
Publisher: TanTan
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A dud rocket.
Astronauts train, ride a Soyuz rocket up a slider to the International Space Station, then return to Earth when their mission is done.
This introduction is so sketchy that the narrative and the pictures differ on the actual number of astronauts involved, and the captions offer a mix of specific facts and fragmentary filler (“The third stage includes an engine”; “The spacesuit provides oxygen for breathing”). Nevertheless, this quick overview of a generic visit to the ISS does reflect both the international character of space missions (at least currently) and the diversity of modern flight crews. Aside from the sliding Soyuz, there are only two small pop-ups, but each of the five openings features cut or folded flaps with additional information or inside views beneath. Along with simply drawn spacecraft and technical gear, Peintre casts a mixed crew of men and women, mostly light skinned but some with darker skin and/or puffy hair. Though individualized, they seem to be just interchangeable place holders, as in one scene the same figure appears twice. The interactive effects are larger and more varied in the co-published Savannah Animals, also by Dussaussois but illustrated by Aurélie Verdon.
A dud rocket. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 979-1-02760-703-7
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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