"Look up!" The narrator tells us as the book opens. Way, way, way up. Outer Space is way out there. She notes it's quiet in space and the audio background is briefly silent, too, as emphasis, not its usual interesting sound effects or bouncy music. Nice touch. Another fun touch when the child speaks through a microphone and sounds much like the astronauts so far, far away have sounded. Also, the almost awed, breathless way the narrator intones the word "space" itself is another nice touch. Although I only had the audio version, it was easy to follow the cartoon characters as they might appear on the page visiting each planet.
We get a quick look and interesting bit of info on each planet, even Pluto, long such kicked out of the planet club but "we still love you, Pluto", the child affirms. The info is presented in a way children can grasp, such as comparing the time it takes us to get from one birthday to another is the amount of time it takes Earth to orbit the sun. In contrast, Neptune takes 165-earth years to make one circuit of the sun. And, hey, did you know Venus spins backward? True. I have to admit to having to look that one up myself. And, more fun facts.
As in the other books I've reviewed from the series, the author reminds listeners to be curious. To ask questions. To learn. As she notes, astronauts ask questions, too, just like children. I know I learned something from this one, always a big plus to me no matter what the genre.
Thanks #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio - #MacmillanYoungListeners for allowing me to learn something today. And, thanks to #RoaringBrookBooks for the series. I'm curious to learn when the next one will be available, so it's worked to spike my curiosity and I'm sure it will do the same for the target audience. Although it's a toss up with the weather focused book, I'm leaning toward this being my favorite of the series (although I haven't read them all yet) so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment