You Are Stardust

You Are Stardust
by Elin Kelsey, illustrated by Soyeon Kim


Every atom in your body heavier than hydrogen was forged in the heart of a dying star. When you cast your eyes upwards to the sky, you see the refineries of the building blocks of life. We humans, we earthlings, are a part of nature and a continuous part of the vast universe that we inhabit. We are the way that that incomprehensibly large universe reflects upon itself.

I first encountered the poetic beauty of these ideas when I read Carl Sagan in college. As a parent, I've tried to explain these big ideas to my son. I'm pleased that Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim have given me a tool to help explain these concepts to my son in their magnificent You Are Stardust.

Elin Kelsey's elegant yet simple prose ("The water swirling in your glass once filled the puddles where dinosaurs drank.") is well matched with Soyeon Kim's beautiful and elaborately constructed collages. You Are Stardust is aesthetically and intellectually rewarding - it is a joy to read and is sure to inspire deep questions from the little one in your life.

You Are Stardust
by Elin Kelsey, illustrated by Soyeon Kim