By Jill McDonald
A first real science book for the very youngest: the sun, the moon, and all eight planets in big, friendly shapes, with one plain true fact on every page.
Jill McDonald draws the whole solar system in bright, rounded shapes a toddler can take in: the sun, the moon, the stars, and every planet from tiny Mercury out to giant Jupiter. Each page gives one plain fact and stops there. The sun is a star. The moon changes shape. Saturn has rings. Every so often it asks a small question, like 'Can you find the biggest planet?', so your child is pointing and looking instead of just listening along. It's real astronomy, all of it true, cut down to board-book size for someone who can't talk yet but can absolutely learn something.
Most books for the under-threes are stories or animal noises. This one is a first fact book, and children who get hooked on space (there are a lot of them) love having a real one that's theirs. The facts are accurate but pared to one idea a page, which is about all a toddler's attention will hold. The little built-in questions give your child something to do: hunt the page, point at the planet. The bright, friendly art keeps it from feeling like homework. As their questions about the sky get bigger, the same eight planets are waiting to fill in with more.