Board Books that celebrate Jewish life and community
Board Books that celebrate Jewish life and community @candlewick
Shabbat Shalom!, by Douglas Florian/Illustrated by Hannah Tolson, (July 2021, Candlewick Press), $7.99, ISBN: 9781536204490
Ages 0-3
An sweet, rhyming story about celebrating the Sabbath, Shabbat Shalom! shows a family heading home as the sun sets, and prepares to celebrate the Sabbath together. Wearing their best clothes and lighting the white candles, the family gathers to sing, pray, and eat…
Douglas Florian’s collection of poems, Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars, focuses on objects and places in outer space.
Galaxies, planets in our solar system, the sun, moon, and more are described within his poetry. Each poem focuses on one topic and includes new vocabulary with context clues to help young readers. As the book goes on, the topics narrow down from broad (the universe, the sky) to specific (comets, planets).
APA Citation
Florian, D. (2007). Comets, stars, the moon, and mars. Orlando, FL: Harcourt
Impressions
The illustrations in this book are superb and work perfectly with the detailed and informative poems for children. The poems reflect beautifully on several aspects of the universe, from our solar system and beyond. In the image above, it’s obvious the author’s creativity as the poem is written in a circular format to imitate the shape of a galaxy. This poetry book would work well for beginning poetry readers and especially for those with a interest in space.
Professional Review
In space, no one can hear you giggle. Except maybe Douglas Florian.
The poet-painter’s latest book brings warm wit to the outermost reaches of cold, dark space. Twenty short poems paired with paintings on double-page spreads create an interstellar journey, starting with “Skywatch,” an invitation to the pleasures of amateur astronomy. The book travels through our solar system and ends up in the somewhat vaguer territory of comets, black holes and “the Great Beyond.” At the end, there’s a “galactic glossary” and a short bibliography with suggestions for further reading. (Tots demanding “A Brief History of Time”? Blame this book!)
Florian’s illustrations depict the marvels of space with luminous texture and detail. Painted in gouache on brown paper bags, they’re littered with a secondary text of rubber-stamped words and collaged with scraps of star maps, photographs and other surprises. Die-cut, circular peepholes give glimpses of stars and planets from neighboring pages.
The most engaging verses in “Comets, Stars” serve up planetary facts with a dose of cheeky humor. Take, for example, “Venus”: “Scalding-hot surface, / Nine hundred degrees. / Nothing can live there, / No creatures, / No trees. / Poisonous clouds / Of acid above. / Why was it named for / the goddess of love?” Or “Pluto,” a riff on cosmic injustice: “Pluto was a planet. / But now it doesn’t pass. / Pluto was a planet. / They say it’s lacking mass. / Pluto was a planet. / Pluto was admired. / Pluto was a planet. / Till one day it got fired.” Poor Pluto!
It should be noted that these are standout stanzas. Some of Florian’s poems stumble on lumpy rhymes or fall flat (see “The Comet,” which begins: “Ice, rock, dirt / Metal and gas — / Around the sun / A comet may pass.”) Previous books better showcase his lively writing with subjects that are — quite literally — alive. His “Insectlopedia” and “Mammalabilia” offer hilarious observations of animals, while collections like “Winter Eyes” find poignancy in the shared seasonal rituals of human beings. Until we find life on Mars, Florian’s most enjoyable work will probably stay rooted here, on plain old planet Earth.
Bruder, J. (2007, June 3). Sunday Book Review [Review of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by D. Florian]. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/books/review/Bruder-t.html?_r=0.
Library Uses
This book could be used for a variety of library lessons. A story time would be great where children could make a solar system model, color pictures, or make star maps. Alternatively, this book could be used in a display focusing on the solar system.
