Gravity is bringing me down

From the moment she tumbles out of bed, young Leda, portrayed with light brown skin, places the blame for her off-kilter day with the biggest force of them all: "Gravity was in a bad mood. Again." This Mercury-retrograde-like occurrence means that nothing goes right in Leda's orbit--a series of slips, spills, and trips at home lead to more of the same at school. Smartly choreographed mixed-media cartoons use realism to depict a comic cascade of woe, including a major fail in the class pyramid-building contest and a bibliographic mess caused by a runaway library cart. Even when a lesson reveals gravity's value ("Without the sun's gravity, our solar system would fly apart"), the force seems intent on getting Leda down. But Mom knows how to get things back in sync: a cosmic reboot at the local children's museum's interactive space exhibit. In this funny, fresh take on a day gone wrong, Van Draanen (Mr. Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters) and Li (Hello, Opportunity) are sympathetic to their protagonist's travails, presenting readers with the opportunity to see in resilient Leda--and themselves--that whatever gravity may throw down, they'll rise above it. Ages 4--8. Author's agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary. (Jan.)

Leda learns about gravity the hard way. This cheerful tale uses Leda's case of the clumsies to introduce the concept of gravity. The child falls out of bed, spills her cereal, trips while getting on the bus, and tips the book cart over. Gravity must be in a bad mood, she concludes. Leda's teacher works in a hands-on lesson on how gravity keeps planets in orbit around the sun and points out that it's also what keeps everything in its place on Earth. Still, nothing seems to go right until a trip to a children's museum, where she climbs and slides and simulates space flight, which brings a peaceful resolution between an active Leda and anchoring gravity. The appealingly bright, textured illustrations lift this title above other STEM-themed picture books. Leda's bedroom is filled with space-themed objects, the school playground is enticing, and the museum's activities seem designed for an energetic child's after-school enjoyment. A popular middle-grade writer noted for several successful fiction series, Van Draanen proves adept at conveying STEM-related info for the picture-book crowd. Very different in approach from Jason Chin's Gravity (2014), the two books would nevertheless make an excellent pairing. Leda and her family are Asian, while the students and museumgoers are racially diverse. An engaging flight of imagination, grounded in fact. (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.