By Stacy McAnulty
The planet Venus tells you all about herself, sassy and proud, in the next funny science 'autobiography' in the Our Universe series.
Venus is done being overlooked, and in this book she gets to brag. In her own big, sassy voice she tells you she's the hottest planet in the whole solar system, hotter even than Mercury which sits closer to the sun. She's got a thick, stinky atmosphere, a day that lasts longer than her entire year, and a sun that comes up in the west because she spins the odd way. Every fun fact comes straight from Venus herself, with Stevie Lewis's bright, bold art making her feel like a real character.
Real astronomy is genuinely hard to make stick with a four-year-old, and letting the planet talk in the first person is why this works: a child remembers Venus is hot and stinky and spins backward because Venus herself keeps bragging about it. It's the ninth in a series that's earned its fans, so if your child loves it there's a whole shelf of planets waiting. Facts wrapped in a personality are facts a young child actually keeps.