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LITTLE SLEEPY SOLAR SYSTEM by John Hutton

LITTLE SLEEPY SOLAR SYSTEM

by John Hutton ; illustrated by Doug Cenko

Pub Date: April 1st, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-936669-85-1
Publisher: blue manatee press

A bedtime rhyme introduces little ones to the solar system.

The first double-page spread introduces the sun, the eight planets, and Pluto (with a question mark); all have eyes, mouths, and arms and look as though they are made of felt and stitched to a quilt. These celestial bodies demonstrate numbers, colors, and opposites in rhyming verse, but Venus, who represents orange, is a bit too yellow, whereas Mars, seen on a previous page, would have done very nicely as orange. Gender stereotypes are subtly evident, with Mars wearing a baseball cap and evidently female-presenting planets given eyelashes. Earth is shown wearing a dress and hair/cloud clips, making it hard to identify our planet. The final double-page spread shows nightcap-wearing planets getting ready for bed, with the parental sun shushing everyone. While the verse scans relatively well, the art is confusing and makes it hard for little ones to identify the planets by their key features.

Those looking for a solar system primer shouldn’t drop out of orbit for this one.

(Board book. 6 mos.-2)