Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this informative and friendly story, two children--one with puffball pigtails, a gap-tooth smile, and a pair of moonboots; the other in a hipster sweater, striped trousers, and tousled hair--spend a night camping in a backyard. The girl enthusiastically reads from a book about space. Observing the stars around them, the two contemplate the relative sizes of the planetary bodies: "Pluto is much smaller than the other planets. That's why it's called a 'Dwarf Planet.' " They use familiar objects as reference points to compare Pluto to the other planets ("If Pluto was a pea... Mercury would be a marble"), including measurements throughout. Outside, they find a scarecrow with a pumpkin head--compared to Pluto's pea, "Saturn would be a pumpkin." Prendergast and Gerlings capture the children's sense of wonder and relatable quest for adventure--both in their camping excursion and curiosity about galaxies beyond. Ages 4--8. (Aug.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Pluto plays a pea to Jupiter's beach ball in this picture book comparing sizes in the solar system. A young boy and girl of different ethnicities ponder the relative proportion of planets. The text is simple and concise; each page contains one sentence set amid large, inviting, and sometimes humorous cartoon illustrations. Readers learn that Pluto is smaller than the Earth's moon, represented as a blueberry. There is some abstract speculation here.; while the audience can easily imagine the size of a Ping-Pong ball (Venus) or a golf ball (Earth), a tent (sun) and pumpkin (Saturn) can vary widely in size. Parenthetical centimeters and inches are included, and adult guidance can make the sizes more apparent. Pluto's five moons sneak into the text; if Pluto really were the size of a pea, the smallest moon, Styx, would be too small to see. The book ends with the boy and girl staring up and marveling at the stars. VERDICT An adequate take on size comparison.--Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
This first picture book by novelist Prendergast (Pandas on the East Side, 2016, etc.) explains the relative sizes of the planets in our solar system.Two children camp out in a backyard, a black child with cornrows and afro puffs and a white child with freckles and glasses. Armed with a book about the solar system, they explore Pluto's status as a dwarf planet by using the refrain "if Pluto was a pea" as a point of comparison. Each spread compares a pea-sized Pluto to another object in the solar system. "The sun would be a tent"; "Mercury would be a marble"; etc. The final comparison is to smaller objectsPluto's three moons. On each spread, the newly named object appears, sometimes with the last object or a pea in the picture too. In the digital illustrations, the background alternates among the night sky, the inside of the tent, and simple white space; the last unfortunately detracts from the cohesive feeling of the story as a cozy campout. An effort is made to keep the objects in proper proportion; this is not always the case though, and the inconsistency can cause confusion. Both metric and English measurements are given for each item for the mathematically minded; as the text is stolidly repetitive, it's hard to imagine other sorts of readers for it.A good idea with execution that leaves much to be desired. (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
