Out of the mouths of babes too, now. Maybe it’s time to get on the stick.
When the moon turns green a child suggests asking NASA to send a specialist to ask it why.
“I look green from the surface of the planet because my friend the Earth is actually sick,” replies the moon—a line that points to the actual, cogent message that our home, not its satellite, is what needs healing. Once the “moon doctor” (depicted in Trenk’s bland cartoons as a White man, sadly missing the opportunity to diversify STEM) returns to Earth and “excitedly share[s] what the moon had told him,” everyone—mostly children in the otherwise racially diverse cast, though even the grown-ups have a childlike look—realizes that their lands and seas are strewn with garbage and understands that all creatures need “a nice clean place to live.” So the great cleanup is accomplished (though, realistically, not “overnight”), and curing the disease cures the symptom as the moon, its golden glow restored, smiles down at the doctor in a final serene scene. While it’s hard not to wonder whether the then-4-year-old author had more than a bit of help with the writing, it’s an ingenious premise, as even readers who know better will start unconsciously checking the moon for a greenish tinge…and then remembering why.
Out of the mouths of babes too, now. Maybe it’s time to get on the stick. (websites) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-58270-761-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beyond Words Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious.
The solar system’s hottest diva struts her stuff.
The titular character’s claim that she’s the only goddess among the planetary gods may leave partisans of “Gaea” (technically not an official name, but still) feeling a little miffed. That aside, Venus still has plenty to crow about—from having higher surface temperatures than Mercury, to sporting a day that’s longer than her year, to spinning so the sun comes up in the west. Joining McAnulty’s other solar system soliloquies with the same engaging mix of facts and attitude (“Earth has clouds. I don’t…just have clouds. I’m smothered in them!”), Venus shines up from the page. She sports a proud expression on her broad face, whether hovering with windswept golden locks over a seashell like her Botticellian counterpart or floating in space, waving to her earthly and celestial fans with stubby limbs. Closing with a review quiz and a roundup of basic statistics, this animated planetary self-portrait will give young readers more reason than ever to pay proper attention to the brightest of our non-stellar astronomical neighbors.
An introduction to Venus that shows the planet at her most verbally and visually vivacious. (bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250334473
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Odd Dot
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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