Star of the Party: The Solar System Celebrates!: The Solar System Celebrates!

by Jan Carr

Overview

All the planets in the solar system decide to throw Sun a birthday party. Includes facts about the planets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524773120
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	04/27/2021
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.38(w) x 10.38(h) x 0.38(d)
Lexile:	AD330L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jan Carr has written over fifty books for children, including the middle-grade novel The Elf of Union Square and the picture books Toe Show Mouse and The Nature of the Beast. She's worked as a Head Start teacher, a book editor at Scholastic, a magazine editor at Sesame Workshop, a children's book reviewer, and an arts journalist, and has taught writing at both The New School and School of Visual Arts in the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program. Jan lives with her husband and son in New York City, where she gazes up at the stars and loves to read about them. You can find her online at jancarr.net.

Juana Medina is the author and illustrator of 1 Big Salad, ABC Pasta, Sweet Shapes, and the Pura Belpré Award winner Juana & Lucas and its follow-up, Juana & Lucas: Big Problemas. She has also illustrated a number of books for other authors and contributed to two recent anthologies: The Hero Next Door and We Are the Change. Besides her work in children's books, she has done illustration, animation, and design work for a myriad of clients.
Juana studied and taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now lives in the D.C. area with her wife and twin sons, with whom she spends hours drawing space shuttles and wondering about distant stars. Discover more about Juana and her work at juanamedina.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 2021-03-02
What do you give a sun for her 4.6 billionth birthday?

The planets decide to throw a party—during the planning of which, amid much chatter and banter, Carr delivers an impressively detailed rundown of the components of our local system. “Let’s get Sun a belt,” suggests Mercury; “She already has belts,” says Mars—namely, “Kuiper” and “asteroid.” She also laces the narrative with mini-disquisitions on stellar and planetary origins, gravitational effects, moons, and dwarf planets. Maintaining an appropriate air of mystery in fedora and topcoat, the theorized Planet X crashes the party briefly, and a launch from Earth prompts Mars to moan, “They’re not sending up another Mars rover are they? Enough with the exploration! Can’t a planet have any privacy?” Using a bright palette that really stands out against her starry backdrops, Medina captures the festive tone of the event. She kits out both Sun and planets with loud party hats and mobile faces over each one’s accurately rendered natural features, also rendering orbital lines and the tails of passing comets. Ultimately the planets agree that testimonials will be the best presents because, as Uranus accurately puts it: “You tug on our hearts and pull our warm family together.” What does Sun think of it all? “Stellar!” What about readers who don’t want to miss out? “Get your science on!” urges Earth as the other planets sign off with inviting waves. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)

Just the ticket for a memorable astro-party. (websites) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews

"Just the ticket for a memorable astro-party.” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

From the Publisher