Book Description
for Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
An exploration of relative size and distance opens with four average eight year olds looking through a telescope and then comparing their height to that of an ostrich, which is twice as tall as the children but still not as tall as a giraffe, which is more than twice as tall as an ostrich or more than four times taller than the children if they were all standing on each other's shoulders. Each succeeding page shows progressively taller and taller comparison -redwood trees, skyscrapers, mountains, and then into space, where the comparisons turn to distance. Outer space expands to the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, galaxy clusters, and the universe. In addition to illustrating the concepts of relative size and distance, Chin also introduces elemental astronomy and physics, but all is on a level that is comprehensible to the average eight year old, who serves as the starting place and the anchor in this intriguing look at comparisons and fascinating exploration of the vastness of space. Chin's realistic watercolor and gouache illustrations are at once whimsical and scientific. (Ages 7-10)
CCBC Choices 2021. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.