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

Zita the Spacegirl

Zita the Spacegirl

by Ben Hatke

Zita is an unremarkable girl, playing with her friend Joseph in the fields around her house, until the path of adventure confronts her. She and Joseph discover a small box at the bottom of a fresh crater that opens a portal to another world. When Joseph is pulled through by some tentacled thing, Zita discovers the hero within and chases after.


On a strange new world, full of myriad bizarre aliens (giant snails! creatures with lots of eyes and lots of limbs! hairy things, clutching their handbags!), Zita feels small and lost, until she befriends a giant alien named Strong Strong. Through her grit, deep compassion, and ability to inspire others to greatness, she brings together robots, aliens, and other people to help her save Joseph. In the end, she saves Joseph, discovers the selfless hero at her core, and (like Dorothy in Oz) helps her friends reveal their own better selves.

Author and illustrator Ben Hatke has put together a delightfully heartwarming book. His exquisitely detailed drawings and delightful tale of adventure and heroism are sure to inspire the little person in your life (and you too!).  Hatke deftly weaves a story of self-discovery and empowerment for young people, that is also rewarding for young adult and adult readers alike.

As an added bonus, this is a great read out loud book. By their posture, word choice, and the typography in the speech bubbles, each character has a unique voice - they clearly tell you how they should sound.

With his gorgeous art, quick story telling, and inspiring story, this is an excellent introduction to the genre of comics/graphic novels. I highly recommend Zita the Spacegirl!

Zita the Spacegirl
by Ben Hatke

Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles

Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book

by Christopher Wormell

1 rhinoceros horn, 2 camel humps, 3 chameleon colors, 4 giraffe legs, 5 starfish arms, 6 frog eyes, 7 black spots on a ladybug... Christopher Wormell's gorgeously detailed Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book helps the reader count from one through twenty - each page featuring a different animal part (including 16 catfish whiskers and 19 crocodile teeth).

Each image is a gorgeously rendered wood print with a pleasing mix of Warhol's pop art style and incredible attention to detail. Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles concludes with a brief discussion of the natural history of each of the animals in the book.

This is an excellent book to help a young person learn their numbers, appreciate excellent art, and develop an interest in the animals that fill the natural world.


Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book, by Christopher Wormell

Steam Train, Dream Train

Steam Train, Dream Train

by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

A steam train races across the prairie at night. Stopping at Night Falls station, the all-animal crew quickly loads each car with toys, paints, racecars, and frozen sweets. Once loaded, the animals tuck themselves into their beds and go to sleep.

There are many books that depict a train driving through the night, only to finish up with a parting image of a child, reposed in sleep, while the train graces the floor of their bedroom. Steam Train, Dream Train is my absolute favorite of them.

In Steam Train, Dream Train, Sherri Duskey Rinker's beautifully flowing rhymes are complemented by Tom Lichtenheld's richly lustrous pastel drawings. I adore the highly realistic, beautifully shaded pastel work, highlighted by the deep texture of the paper the Tom Lichtenheld was working with. Not only are these drawings jaunty and playful (my son adores the camel loading a boxcar), they're truly fine art. As a final benefit, for those of us who don't know a hopper from a reefer, the name of each train car is rendered in subtly bold text.

Steam Train, Dream Train
by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

Chu's Day

Chu's Day
by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Adam Rex


Chu is a young panda with a fantastic aviator's cap and goggles who lives in a world surrounded by a wide variety of other anthropomorphic animals. He goes about his day visiting the library with his mum and having lunch in a diner with his papa, always on the verge of sneezing. That evening at the circus when his mighty sneeze finally comes, it ravages his town, leaving chaos and mayhem in its wake.

We all know Neil Gaiman from his multiple genre titles, graphic novels, and YA books. He's also a fantastic children's author, telling a simple yet imaginative story in Chu's Day. Gaiman's text is leavened by hilariously realistic, absurdist images of whale short order cooks, porcine clowns, and leonine lion tamers. My son has had this book for over a year and he still falls out of my lap laughing, every time we read it.

Chu's Day, by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Adam Rex

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas

by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca

Long distance, open water swimmer Lynne Cox visited New Zealand in 1983. While walking along the Avon river in Christchurch, a boy named Michael and his sister Maggie asked her if she was looking for Elizabeth. Lynne spent the rest of the day talking with them about the famous elephant seal (sea elephant as the kiwis call them) that lived in the river and had been named in honor of the Queen of England

It turns out that having a 2,000 pound mammal residing in your city can be a bit of a challenge to public safety, especially when they like to lie in the middle of nice warm roads. The New Zealand wildlife managers decided to relocate her to a nearby elephant seal colony.

To everyone's amazement, she returned to the banks of the Avon again and again. The people of Christchurch became so attached to Elizabeth that the city decided that it was better to adjust the behavior of people to Elizabeth's presence than to try to make her change her behavior.

Lynne Cox' new book Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas tells the lovely story of Elizabeth and Michael's ongoing friendship (sadly, Maggie is left out of the story). Each time Elizabeth is taken away, Michael longs to see her again and every time she returns, they are delighted to be reunited. Brian Floca's lovingly realistic illustrations bring the story to life. My son particularly delighted in the image of Elizabeth tossing huge clumps of mud onto her back.

On the final page of Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas, there is a brief discussion of the natural history of elephant seals, describing their eating habits, life cycle, habitat, etc. This sweet story is a definite keeper for anyone interested in fostering a love of the natural world and encouraging people to find a way to live in harmony with the world around us.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas, by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca

The Little Dump Truck

The Little Dump Truck

by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by Bob Kolar

Does your little one obsess over trucks and construction equipment? Have I got a book for you!

Margery Cuyler's The Little Dump Truck recounts a day in the life of a dump truck and her driver, Hard Hat Pete. They drive through the city, visit a construction site (visiting bulldozers, excavators, forklifts, and lots of other trucks) and then dump their load, all with a good pace and a nice rhyming scheme. Bob Kolar's vibrant illustrations blend nicely with the text. From the sullen garbage truck to the blissful microbus, all of the vehicles (particularly the very determined looking limousine) have very expressive faces and unique personalities.

This is a fun book for the newborn through 4 year old crowd. I highly recommend this book for the aspiring construction worker in your life!

The Little Dump Truck, by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by Bob Kolar