Review by Booklist Review
This attractive volume offers 20 illustrated poems about space travel and astronomy, supported by information related to each selection. The wide-ranging topics include the unusual items that the Apollo 11 astronauts took to the moon; the experience of zero gravity; the planets considered as potential vacation spots; and constellations viewed as both stars and stories. In the verse, Sklansky has a pleasing way with words and a good sense of what appeals to children. A wide black border running vertically along one or both pages of the spread acts as a fact box, carrying information (printed in white) that kids might need to know to understand a specific poem, as well as intriguing related factoids. Schuett's mixed-media artwork digitally combines appealing gouache paintings with more formal printed elements that bring subtle texture and a sense of fathomless depth and mystery to the best illustrations here. Recommended for both library poetry collections and classroom astronomy units.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sklansky contrasts light verse about the universe with facts about outer space (which appear in sidebars) in this gentle collection, while Schuett combines homey gouache cartoons with digitally rendered intergalactic details. After a pair of siblings blast off in a rocket, "The Earth/ fills/ their window/ and then/ drops away,/ like a/ basketball/ baseball/ golfball/ marble./ How far from home/ they've traveled today." Another boy contemplates visiting the planets, allowing Sklansky to work in some additional science ("On Venus, I could marvel/ at a sunrise in the west./ Nice... except sulfuric clouds/ do not encourage guests"). An evocative mix of the whimsical and the scientific. Ages 5-9. Agent: April Prince, Studio Goodwin Sturges. Illustrator's agent: Christina Tugeau. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-"The highest mountain is on Mars,/the deepest canyon too./Yet clouds of dust could stop me from admiring the view." In poetry laced with fact and supplemented by substantial prose commentary in sidebars, Sklansky presents readers with a space tour that is both informative and vividly experienced. Schuett's dark, starry illustrations add an appropriate sense of depth and distance. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Poems (of varying quality) about space travel, astronauts, bodies in the solar system, and the universe combine scientific terminology and wonderment. Each is juxtaposed, some in creative graphic formats, on cartoonlike illustrations of the featured object. Black border margins contain more detailed facts and background information about such topics as weightlessness, the history of flight, and planetary surface conditions. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
