Meet the Planets

by John McGranaghan, Laurie Allen Klein (Illustrator)

Overview

Soar into the Solar System to witness the first Favorite Planet Competition, emceed by none other than the former-ninth planet, now known as dwarf planet Pluto. The readers become the judges after the sun can't pick a favorite and the meteors leave for a shower. Who will the lucky winning planet be? Could it be speedy-messenger Mercury, light-on-his-feet Saturn, or smoking-hot Venus? Readers learn all about each planet as Pluto announces them with short, tongue-in-cheek facts. Children will spend hours searching the art for all the references to famous scientists and people of history, space technology, constellations, art, and classic literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607181231
Publisher:	Arbordale Publishing
Publication date:	03/30/2011
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD760L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 10 Years

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2–4—Amusingly framed as a cheesy popularity contest, this parade of personified planets features illustrations in which rotund, recognizably marked caricatures of these heavenly bodies pose and mug, surrounded by an entourage of relevant though unidentified scientists, space probes, satellites both natural and artificial, books, constellations, and astronomical symbols. After introducing the contestants one by one, ex-planet emcee Pluto invites viewers to choose the winner: Venus, perhaps? "She's bright, she's beautiful, and she's smoking hot." Or "massive, gassive Jupiter"? For young judges who prefer to make decisions by the numbers, the final three spreads are packed with charts, physical facts, and quizzes, all of which are supplemented by much more of the same in a dedicated area of the publisher's website. Though the only visual key to each spread is buried in the massive online teacher's guide where few young readers will find it on their own, and a claim in one quiz that "life as we know it" could not survive the temperatures on other planets is incorrect, the breezy, unconventional approach makes this a promisingly engaging way to introduce, or re-introduce, our celestial neighbors.—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library

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