SPACE

Name: SPACE
Author: Sophie Dussaussois
ISBN: 978-1-03632-519-9

From the Pop-Up Guide series

by Sophie Dussaussois ; illustrated by Charline Picard ; translated by Wendeline A. Hardenberg ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

A quick flyby, too light of payload for serious study but with some potential for display.

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Ten pop-up scenes portray highlights of space exploration, from telescopes to Mars landings, in this French import.

Kitted with elastic bands to hold any of the multilevel painted tableaux open for display, the survey kicks off with a group of ground-based and orbiting telescopes, panoramic views of the planets, and a scanty assortment of satellites (only some of which are identified). From there the focus changes to live space ventures, including moonwalks, inside and outside views of the International Space Station, and, to close, a mix of current and future visitors to Mars. The art has a utilitarian cast overall, and the accompanying labels aren’t always informative (satellite; atmosphere) or easily legible, as they are often printed in black type on the dark blue of outer space. Sometimes, as with the description of a crew sitting in a Soyuz capsule’s interior accompanying an exterior view of the rocket blasting off, they are not even relevant. The sparse narrative text at best gets the job done: “Earth travels around the Sun along with seven other planets. Together, they form our solar system. Some planets are made of rock….” Still, the aptly named but rarely mentioned “RemoveDEBRIS” satellite gets a cameo in one scene, a line-up of launch vehicles past and present is current enough to include the Falcon Heavy and New Shepard, and human figures—at least the ones not wearing spacesuits—reflect the next generation of space explorers in being diverse of age, race, and gender presentation.

A quick flyby, too light of payload for serious study but with some potential for display. (Informational pop-up. 6-8)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-03632-519-9

Page Count: 20

Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle

Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

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THE LITTLE BOOK OF JOY

by Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu ; illustrated by Rafael López ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2022

Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.

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From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.

Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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PROFESSOR ASTRO CAT'S SPACE ROCKETS

From the Professor Astro Cat series

by Dominic Walliman ; illustrated by Ben Newman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018

Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.

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The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.

Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.

Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)