astronomy

Picture Book Review ~ Astronaut Annie

Posted on by Amy
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

With the weather warming up its the perfect time to head outside and look up at the stars. And if you’ve got a budding astronomer/astronaut in your midst then this book is for you!

Career Day is coming up but Annie is keeping her dream a secret until the big day. Everyone in Annie’s family has a guess as to what she’d like to be. They’re each sure she wants to be what they were (reporters, cooks, explorers etc.) and give her something to help out with her costume. She counters each response with gratitude but keeps everything under her hat until the big day. Once up on stage she reveals her choice, honoring her family members and the traits she inherited and learned from each of them. This spunky girl uses the things she’s been given to dream big.

This book packs a two-for-one punch with some non-fiction facts along with Annie’s inspiring story. The rhyming text is perfect for a read-aloud and will inspire listeners to dream their own dreams. There’s some fantastic back matter including mini-bios and photos of some of the best-known women from the space program, some information on the moon’s orbit and phases, and additional resources.

Astronaut Annie book review

Astronaut Annie

Written by: Suzanne Slade

Illustrated by: Nicole Tadgell

Publisher: Tilbury House, 2018

Number of Pages: 36

Age Range: 4-8

Rating: 4/5

 

 

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Picture Book Review ~ A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars

Posted on by Amy

A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars Book Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars

Written by: Seth Fishman

Illustrated by: Isabel Greenberg

Number of Pages: 32

Age Range: 5 to 10

Rating: 4/5

Ginormous numbers are hard to process, even for an adult mind with a little bit of experience and some context. But the author tackles the stars (approximately a hundred billion trillion), the number of gallons of water on the planet (approximately three hundred seventy billion billion), the number of seconds in a year (31,536,000), and the number of raindrops in the average thunderstorm (1,620 trillion) in an effort to illustrate the vastness and incredible awesomeness of the universe and world around us.

The numbers are written out in both numeral and word form (a boon to anyone reading it out-loud who can’t automatically vocalize numbers like 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000* without googling them!) And while there are a host of intangible topics and ideas addressed you’ll also learn about the number of teeth a shark has and how many pounds of bugs you might eat in your lifetime.

An author’s note also explains how many of the numbers in the book are almost true and how a scientist comes to estimate something. There’s also a breakdown of the place values and number names for future reference.

This is a must for any inquisitive, science-minded readers! A fabulous non-fiction addition to classroom or school libraries as well.

*thirteen million billion billion…the weight of our planet in pounds! 🙂
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Middle Grade Book Review ~ Every Soul a Star

Posted on by Amy

Every Soul a Star Book Review

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

Title: Every Soul a Star

Written by: Wendy Mass

Number of Pages: 322

Age Range: 10-14

Rating: 4/5

Three teens’ lives intersect at the occurrence of a total solar eclipse and none of them will ever be the same.

Told in alternating points of view the book opens with 13-year-old Ally describing Moon Shadow, the isolated campground her family established and her home for as long as she can remember. An amateur astronomer, she’s looking forward to the upcoming eclipse and honoring her grandfather’s memory by discovering a comet. She loves the quiet, the hot springs, her home school studies with her brother, and conversing each night with her friends, the stars and planets she studies.

Next up is Bree. She wants nothing more than to be a model, run the A-Clique at school, and anything else she can come up with to distance herself from her uber-scientific parents and nerdy little sister. When her parents drop a bombshell and tell her they’ll be taking over running a campsite in order to devote more time to their science she’s convinced her life is over.

And finally we’ve got Alex, a smart, shy kid who’d rather spend time drawing and thus finds himself facing summer school until his science teacher invites him to join a research trip to witness the eclipse. He hops a bus full of strangers prepared to keep his head down and muddle through but the universe has other ideas.

As they converge on camp Moon Shadow, the kids are forced to face their realities and what they had envisioned for their respective futures. The other camp goers also play a part in helping each one of the narrators expand their views of what happiness can mean and how to appreciate what’s right in front of us.

I missed the totality of the recent eclipse by a couple hundred miles but heard so many accounts of the incredible experience that reading the descriptions in this book made me feel as if I was somehow reliving it anyway. Apparently words like “magical” and “life changing” aren’t an exaggeration. (I’ve added it to my bucket list.) But I’ve always been fascinated by the stars and found so much to love and think about in these pages.

Mass has a great talent for creating stories that reach out and grab you and make you re-think your place in the world.  If you, or your child, witnessed the eclipse you should definitely give this one a look. And if you missed out on the totality and wondered what all the fuss was about add it to your list as well. Or, if you just love stories about self-discovery filled with heart and magic…well, this book’s for you!

I’d love to hear about your astronomical experiences or your favorite book about the stars in the comments below.

Happy reading!

 

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