Children's Books discussion

Our books have been chosen!!! Please check back come November so we can begin our discussion of OUTER SPACE :-)

If You Decide To Go To The Moon (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings

The Moon Over Star

ALTERNATE TITLE (for older children)
Our Solar System

Thank you, Kathryn. Yay! I've read/reviewed 2 and remember then sufficiently well to discuss, I've just reserved 2 from my public library & 2 from my library's LINK+ system from other "sister" libraries; those latter 2 will take a bit longer to arrive, but it looks as though next month, once again, I'll be able to read and discuss all of our club's books.

Hooray! I have to see if I can get the "Planet Hunter" through ILL but the others are already on reserve for me :-)

I can't get Planet Hunter or The Moon Over Star, but they look pretty special - I hope I can tell from the discussion whether to try to buy copies.

I ordered the much newer edition of Seymour Simon's Our Solar System. Some of them are ILL but I should be ready early in Nov.

Cheryl wrote: "I can't get Planet Hunter or The Moon Over Star, but they look pretty special - I hope I can tell from the discussion whether to try to buy copies."

I feel the same way about "Planet Hunter"--I'm going to try ILL first but, if that fails, I will wait for the discussion to see if it's worth tracking down a used copy!

I can't get any of them. So I am eagerly anticipating your reviews to see if there are any I want to buy. I am still kicking myself for not getting "Moon Over Star" when it was around six dollars!

Kirei wrote: "I can't get any of them. So I am eagerly anticipating your reviews to see if there are any I want to buy. I am still kicking myself for not getting "Moon Over Star" when it was around six dollars!"

Oh, that is too bad, Kirei!!! Well, I hope that some of them will be so wonderful you'll have to add them to your personal library ;-)

I'm very excited. I've never participated in a picture book club discussion before, but my seven year-old son is very into space, and so I've just had the brainwave that I can read all of these with him over the course of the month -- and post about both of our reactions.

Emily wrote: "I'm very excited. I've never participated in a picture book club discussion before, but my seven year-old son is very into space, and so I've just had the brainwave that I can read all of these wit..."

Oooh, that's wonderful, Emily! I'm so happy we've chosen a topic that is engaging for your son. I hope you both enjoy the books and look forward to having you participate in the discussion with us :-)

Would love to hear what your son thinks of the books. I am trying to do the same thing as well. I was able to locate at least half the books so far and am on the hunt for the rest.

I found a lovely paperback copy of If You Decide To Go To The Moon on the library sale shelf for fifty cents on Friday! What are the odds!?! ;-) The other books are trickling in and I'm eager to start some this week--now that I'm finished with all my Halloween books!

I think I've now gotten to 5 of the 6 (4 x 4 stars and 1 x 3 stars) and I have the 6th book at home. I will try to read it today or tomorrow and comment more then on the books.

Kathryn, That's a great deal! That's my 3 star book though.

Also, I noticed that Our Solar System, the book I have yet to read, is really old for a non-fiction book of this type, so I'm not very pleased about that.

But, overall, another fantastic month for this club!

I think I voted for it, but I should have checked the publication date. Our Solar System was published in 1992, and while a beautiful and interesting enough book, it sadly includes outdated information now, so I wouldn't recommend reading it in 2010, though I did enjoy reading about planet Pluto. ;-)

I loved The Moon Over Star. I didn't think the language flowed smoothly, but I ended up being very touched by the story. I appreciated how granddaughter and grandfather were able to find personal meaning in the global event.

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings is a book I read a while back, and I remember wanting to listen to Holst's The Planets during & after. I thought it was a good introduction to astronomy and non-fiction poetry.

I liked the environmental message in If You Decide to Go to the Moon but liked and disliked various illustrations and text parts of the book.

Moonshot was impressive. What I mostly remember from that was its reminder that all peopled moon exploration took place between 1969 and 1972. Ages ago and a very short time period.

The Planet Hunter was probably my favorite of the bunch:

This biography is so perfect for kids, especially those interested in astronomy or discovery/invention. It’s about Mike Brown and it starts when he’s a boy and goes to the present. He’s now an adult with a daughter of his own. But, he’s “Mike” throughout the book and he’s referred to in a way that does not distance him too much from his childhood goals, or from children being able to identify with him. He’s portrayed in such a way that children will like and admire him, but he doesn’t seem like a high and mighty adult either.

This story of a man who’s looking to make a discovery and finds something else that also ends up being an important find could spur on young scientists and children who have interest in other fields too. It shows how continuing to work and persevering with childhood dreams can lead to success as an adult.

I love some of the illustrations. The expression on Mike’s face on the “space blob” page is priceless; what the illustrator did with his eyes is great. I also love that baby Lilah’s over the crib mobile was a replica of our solar system. I was delighted that the new solar system poster was there, folded into the inside back cover of this library copy of the book. It’s a wonderful poster that gives a good feel for the proper scale of the sun and planets and other space objects; I hope it never gets separated from the book. Many of the illustrations are too garish for my taste in art, but they work for this book, and I’m always a sucker for a cute dog, and there is one of those in some of the early pictures.

This is one of six picture books for November’s “space” theme at the Picture Books Club at the Children's Books group. Another winner! It’s rare that our books are not really good, and all have been worthy of the interesting discussions we have.

So, now the thing I appreciate most about this children’s picture book is that maybe, just maybe, it finally convinced me that Pluto shouldn’t be deemed a planet. I really mourned when Pluto lost its planet status, but I have to admit its demotion makes sense, something which I hadn’t wanted to admit up until now. It sometimes takes me awhile to adjust!

ETA: I hope you all got to see the poster in that last book!

Our Solar System has an updated version which explains the Pluto issue. That's the copy my library has. I thought the photos were gorgeous, but the text rather dry - hard going as a leisure read, but an excellent resource for a research report or a child who's really into space. I learned a couple of things.

Cheryl, Thank you!!! That explains it and explains why I probably voted for it too. But, unfortunately, my library gave me the 1992 original edition.

Now, I'm off to put a short addendum on my review.

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings was weird. Bad science, lame verses, fun but not special artwork. The author profile says he stargazes in New York City? Um, not so much.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 was *wonderful.* I have no idea how Brian Floca managed to make history and technology (my least favorite subjects re' space) come so alive for me, but I'm impressed. I'm going to look for his other books. Lots of information, clearly and vividly presented, with a graceful, fluent text and bright illustrations that truly helped clarify the information. And for the true fan, there's lots more info. in the end-papers. I learned *lots* of stuff - for example did you know the astronauts were quarantined for three weeks for fear of moon germs?! I didn't!

Cheryl wrote: "Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings was weird. Bad science, lame verses, fun but not special artwork. The author profile says he stargazes in New York City?..."

I'm not really "up" on my astronomy, so what did you find was "bad science" here, Cheryl?

I actually really enjoyed Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings I thought the illustrations were really fun and inventive--I loved how there were little cut-out illustrations of the various gods with the planets they are named after, etc. I liked some of the poems better than others, but overall I thought they worked well and had a nice blend of wonderment, science and fun. And the scientific note at the back seemed good to me. But, again, I don't know enough to be a good judge on how accurate it is.

Cheryl wrote: "Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 was *wonderful.* I have no idea how Brian Floca managed to make history and technology (my least favorite subjects re' space) come so alive for me, but I'm impressed."

This is one I read a year or so ago and LOVED and I was SO happy that it got so many votes so others could read it for our Outer Space theme. Floca tells the story of Apollo "The Eagle Has Landed" 11 with such heart and an almost poetic style--I was captivated and moved. My only (very small!) negative is the illustrations almost seemed a bit too cartoonish for the style of the text--though the illustrations are engaging and fun, all the same. But, that is just a very small and picky observation that did not diminish my overall enjoyment of the book. There is a lengthy and engaging historical note in the back going into more details about the Apollo 11 mission and the space race in general, but really the text of the story does such a fine job covering all the important aspects, anyway, so I think this could be used with different ages of children; just reading the story for the younger ones and then adding on the NOTE for the older kids. This is so good! I hope everyone is able to get a copy!!!

Chandra wrote: "I was talking about this month's theme with my cousin who is in her first year as an elementary school librarian. She said that she went through her collection and found that over 90% of her space/astronomy books were out of date! Yikes! "

Oh no! :-(

Oh, Florian's doggerel doesn't say anything *wrong* per se, it's just that it doesn't help kids understand what outer space is really like. For example the anthropomorphic Mercury - being near the heat of sun doesn't make Mercury run fast. And Jupiter has lots more than 16 moons, and has rings, too. And why not say something about why Pluto got 'fired' - ?

And the silly astrological poem about constellations - the stars that make up those patterns only appear close together - there's really no reason to group them. And no he wouldn't want a black hole in his room - even if he could get one small enough it would sweep up his trash and his tools indiscriminantly, and then it would keep on going.

I did think the paintings were fun - but I just don't see the point of the book. It doesn't teach anything. I think it could have been much better if he'd gotten real poems so that it was an art book, inspirational.

Otoh, I liked If You Decide To Go To The Moon. I even learned something - I didn't know the seas were lava flows (I'd assumed they were extra big meteor craters). I liked that it explained things that often don't get mentioned elsewhere, such as the fact of no sound or wind, and the wires in the flag. I liked the environmental message, and the back cover which makes it clear that the female is going to get a turn, too.

I too am looking forward to Emily's son's opinions. :)

I just found you guys, but I wanted to say that a book my son really loves was
Sheep Blast off.
This was one we read and re-read.

Can't wait to be part of the group

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, Florian's doggerel doesn't say anything *wrong* per se, it's just that it doesn't help kids understand what outer space is really like."

Chandra wrote: "I suppose the point for me is that the poems were short, simple and fun while introducing ideas, concepts, and vocabulary about space in an easy to digest and attractive format."

Thanks for the clarification, Cheryl. I can see your point about this not being the best book for teaching the more realistic/scientific points about the planets. I guess, like Chandra, I looked at it more as a fun introduction--especially for kids who maybe aren't yet ready for the more in-depth information--just to get them thinking about space as more than just "twinkle, twinkle, little star" ;-) Something to spark their imagination (through the poetry and illustrations) and get them thinking about the science side so that, one would hope, they could go deeper into the subject once inspired. I am hoping, though, to get a bit more scientific in some of the other books this month...

Leslie wrote: "I just found you guys, but I wanted to say that a book my son really loves was
Sheep Blast off.
This was one we read and re-read.

Can't wait to be part of the group "

Welcome, Leslie! :-) I'm going to add your suggestion SHEEP BLAST OFF to our Master List for the Outer Space books. Thank you!

Chandra wrote: "I know one of the things my kiddo really enjoys is hearing how people 'live' in space. The whole showering, using the restroom, and eating stuff really intrigues her!"

Oh, I LOVED that stuff when I was a kid. Fascinating and fun ;-)

Lisa wrote: "The Planet Hunter was probably my favorite of the bunch:

This biography is so perfect for kids, especially those interested in astronomy or discovery/invention. It’s about Mike Brown and it starts when he’s a boy and goes to the present. He’s now an adult with a daughter of his own. But, he’s “Mike” throughout the book and he’s referred to in a way that does not distance him too much from his childhood goals, or from children being able to identify with him. He’s portrayed in such a way that children will like and admire him, but he doesn’t seem like a high and mighty adult either. "

Lisa, I was SO excited to read your review! Sounds like a fabulous book. This book actually prompted me to FINALLY ask into Inter-Library Loan at my local branch. Fortunately, my library system is well-stocked and we can get books from any of the four branches in the district with great ease and speed. So, I've been so preoccupied with the books I can get locally I have purposely avoided ILL so I don't get too swamped, haha! But, this month, since I can't get "Planet Hunter" through the district and it's still a bit pricey new, I thought I'd do ILL.

WELL, turns out it costs $3.00 per book to do ILL at my branch!!! OMG!!! Do any of you have to pay for ILL??? I was under the impression it was a free service! Oh, darn, darn, darn!!! :-/ So, I won't be reading The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto with you all :-( I'm not going to pay $3.00 to borrow a book when, chances are, I can just buy it used for $4.00 or $5.00 when it's been out a little longer and this sounds like a good book to own.

But, I hope many more of you can read and enjoy this book. Like Lisa, I've always been a bit bummed about Pluto's "demotion" and I'm glad the book helped illuminate why it may be justified, after all!

Absolutely! I really don't want to whine, because my library is AWESOME, I was just so disappointed and I am so voracious with picture books that $3.00 a book would get very expensive if I actually tried to get all of the ones I want that they don't already have via ILL.

Kathryn wrote: "So, I won't be reading The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto with you all :-(."

That's too bad, Kathryn. My library isn't that great as it has budget woes but I can do our "LINK+" system for free. It's getting books from other libraries around California and Nevada. I can't ever seen to get a true ILL book though. All my requests have been cancelled because they can't be sent.

Just one city south of me, Daly City, charges to get books from other branches and even more to get books from ILL.

I think every city has different rules.

I can't remember if I got this book from the SFPL or LINK+, which has different rules. If from SFPL, I could take it out, send it to you and you could send it back and I could return it. Interested? I'm not sure if it would be worth it to you. If I'm remembering correctly, I really liked it, but gave it 4, not 5, stars.

Lisa wrote: "I can't remember if I got this book from the SFPL or LINK+, which has different rules. If from SFPL, I could take it out, send it to you and you could send it back and I could return it. Interested? I'm not sure if it would be worth it to you. If I'm remembering correctly, I really liked it, but gave it 4, not 5, stars. ."

Thanks, that is so sweet of you, Lisa! But even for a small book, with postage costs it would probably be close to $3.00 anyway so I'll probably just wait and see if my library gets this one soon (sometimes they take a little while on newer titles) or if it comes down in price used. Thanks, though! ;-)

Kathryn, Sure. I agree it's probably not sensible.

Chandra, We can do that in San Francisco too, and we have a main library & MANY branches. It does come in handy, yes, even though I usually end up at one of my two neighborhood branches.

We can also (for free) request that a book from any branch be sent to our branch. That's how I borrow books 99% of the time! I just pick up what's waiting for me.

Lisa wrote: "We can do that in San Francisco too, and we have a main library & MANY branches. It does come in handy, yes, even though I usually end up at one of my two neighborhood branches. We can also (for free) request that a book from any branch be sent to our branch. That's how I borrow books 99% of the time! I just pick up what's waiting for me."

Same here. I love it! ;-) That's why I haven't really had to do ILL before!

And, Chandra, I so want to go to that library branch with the dollhouse ;-) Sounds great!

I want to see that dollhouse too!

I now appreciate our ILL even more. It is free, and I can check out and/or return any book to any town in rural Nevada (incl. mine, Carson City). I't almost like having branches across most of the state.

Washoe County (Reno) and the Las Vegas area are separate, but still we have a pretty good total collection.

Neat dollhouse! Our prefectural library had a replica of the Moomin tree house. But it wasn't behind glass and ds kept wanting to touch it!!! :-(

Chandra wrote: "It's pretty awesome!

Here's a peek:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ne...

Of course they don't show the BEST part - the interior!"

Swoon! If I was five inches tall, I would like to move in ;-)

Chandra wrote: "It's pretty awesome!

Here's a peek:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ne...

Of course they don't show the BEST part - the interior!"

Oh wow! I'd love to see the interior.

Have you ever seen the miniatures rooms at the Chicago Art Institute? So cool.

This house looks really special! How great that a library has it!

Chandra wrote: "I've never been to Chicago :( But I pretty much love miniatures of all types!"

Chandra, You'd love that exhibit, and I think Izzy would too.

After I visited I read a book showing the exhibits, but it's not the same as being there: (not a children's book but kids can enjoy it, especially if they've been to the museum exhibit): Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago

Here's my reviews on the books this month.

If You Decide To Go To The Moon although this was written with lower grades in mind it seemed pretty text heavy to me. I think the illustrations were pretty representative of how things would look but I did not like it as much as Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 The illustrations here immediately grabbed our attention they were more light hearted and warm at the same time. Although there was the same amount of text as the first book, it seemed to be balanced more for us. The front inside and back cover were nice touches as well. Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings I have to admit that I have not read many books on poems so what really stood out was how the clever illustrations and cut outs that show glimpses of the next page complimented the poems so well. The vibrant colors and shapes really added so much to the wonderfully written poems. Another fun month of reads.

I love miniatures, too! That looks like a great book, Lisa :-)

Kathryn wrote: "I love miniatures, too! That looks like a great book, Lisa :-)"

Kathryn, I saw that you added the book. Just something important to mention: if you haven't seen the exhibit, the photos looks as they could be of real rooms and not miniature rooms. Once you've seen the rooms at the museum, then it's fun to look at them in the book. If you read the book (some libraries do have it!) you have to remind yourself that the photos are of miniatures.

And we're on a new page. How did I get to this book from our Outer Space reads thread?!?!!

Haha ;-p Well, I did enjoy the tangent! And I think *I* started it with my little rant about ILL. (Oh, but thanks for the info on the miniatures book, Lisa. That is good to know!)

So, to bring us back on track, I am still trying to compose my review on If You Decide To Go To The Moon. I have a nostalgic fondness for Kellogg's work, since his books were popular during my childhood, but I thought some of his illustrations were stronger than others here. A few of the faces just didn't look quite right to me, but then I loved the cute animals and I thought the moon scenes were lovely. Content-wise, I think that the "you" aspect of the book didn't work as well as I'd hoped. It got a bit too one-dimensional in its view at times and I think it would be more fun for children to get an understanding for what a space trip is like and then imagine how they might respond... I just never really felt captivated or excited about being an astronaut and I think that is what the whole point of the book should have been. But,then again, maybe that is just me as I know it's a popular book. That said, I do think it's a good introduction to astronauts and the moon for children and I'm glad I read it. The message about being good to the Earth is nice, too; I loved the pull-out illustration with all the animals and the history of humanity and all that... lots of fabulous details, and so pretty!

I actually really liked this review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
and want to check out the book that he compares this to:
Astronaut Handbook

I've read all but the Seymour Simon book now. I enjoyed all of them for many of the reasons listed above.

I also think my favorite was The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto. The pictures were great, and the story was so interesting. I can imagine this being a great read aloud as part of an astronomy unit, but also being equally great as part of a biography unit. What a cool guy! I love that he didn't give up and showed such determination..and the idea that scientists make mistakes and our knowledge continues to evolve.

The story in Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11was informational and my 5 yo and 7 yo thought it was so interesting. They asked about a million questions. The language, as mentioned by others, was exquisite...almost poetic.

I really enjoyed Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings. While I can see Cheryl's point that they weren't the most scientific, I think they are great for younger children. And one of the things that kids love about children's poetry is that it is often funny (think popular favorites like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky). I can imagine many kids laughing about the black hole in his room. I think Florian does a nice job of giving a little bit of knowledge in an easy to swallow format... My seven year old daughter loved reading them.

The book
The Moon Over Star made me wonder what the general public thought about the whole space race. I remember that a few members of my family made comments about the money wasted by NASA/space exploration that could be used to solve problems here on Earth. And this was long after the trip to the moon. (I wasn't born until the late 70's so these conversations would have taken place in the 80's... in the era of the space shuttle Challenger and such). How controversial was that trip to the moon? I know that I've heard the audio clips of Armstrong and it brings chills to me.. I think it would have been thrilling to be alive during that. But I guess I can see why some people would have thought it was a waste of money.

I read If You Decide To Go To The Moon to my second grade class about a month ago. They loved it. I really liked the illustrations and thought it was a clever approach to explaining information about the moon.

I agree with the earlier assessments of Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11. I purchased this book earlier this year for my grandson based on the recommendations of members of this group and we both loved it. The text is beautiful and poetic, conveying the sense of distance and isolation, far from the warmth of home, as the astronauts venture into space. I liked the almost subdued tone, less jolly that many other children's books about space travel. This book showed the seriousness of the mission as well as the adventure. Excellent.

Jenny, thanks so much for sharing your (and your class') reactions to the books. I have yet to read "Moon Over Stars" but am curious about the points you raise and will definitely comment back after I've read it :-)

Whilhelmina, I'm so happy that your purchase of "Moonshot" ended up being a success! Hooray!

The boy (age 7) and I have now read our first of the selections, If You Decide To Go To The Moon. My feelings about the book matched Lisa's. I didn't care for the illustrations of the boy either-- he just seems kind of sappy, especially on the cover. There is indeed plenty of interesting information here, for the most part engagingly presented. But it is annoying to be told what one will think about everything. I was particularly ruffled when it was suggested that I might wonder if there would be a field of moon grass and moon cows over the next rise. Please. My son laughed at the cows going "mooon" though, so I guess Faith McNulty knows what that age group likes. On the plus side, I thought the pull-out spread was lovely and moving. And when we finished, my son's eyes were shining and he said "I want to go to the moon!" and began talking about supplies he would need, including a machine to make oxygen so that he could stay "overnight". So I'm glad we read it, but I won't be picking it up to pour over at my leisure.

And as for the interesting side discussion on miniatures, I can't resist mentioning that a fantasy novel, The Sixty-Eight Rooms, was published this year about kids visiting the Thorne rooms and shrinking to miniature size and having adventures there. Here is my sister's review.

Oh, I'll definitely have to check out that book! My cup of tea exactly. Thank you, Emily!

ETA: and it's already on my list. On my phone now and I can't move it up the queue now, but I'll try to remember to do that, despite the mixed review(s).