Next Stop Neptune: Experiencing the Solar System
Kindergarten-Grade 4–Paper-collage whiz Jenkins returns to the space art he used to such breathtaking effect inLooking Down(Houghton, 2003), but here he looks up: at the entire solar system, and, briefly, beyond. The text, written by his physicist father, provides a nearly number-free scattering of basic facts, beginning with an overview of the system, depicting planets and major moons from the Sun on out, then closing with spreads on space travel, and the idea of life on other planets. In alternating close-ups and pages of smaller scenes, the artist overlays pieces of cut, painted, crumpled, or otherwise worked papers for dramatic evocations of swirling clouds, airless expanses of rocky rubble, storms, volcanoes, spacecraft, and more. Unfortunately, the beauty here is sometimes only skin deep; the volcano Maxwell Mons, for instance, is incorrectly placed on Mars rather than Venus, and the clean look of one view of the solar system is achieved by leaving out the asteroid belt, and assigning Pluto to a wrong orbit. Furthermore, even the information that is accurate is widely available elsewhere, and some depictions of Saturn have an unfinished look. This tour makes a strong initial impression, but Dana Meachen Rau'sSolar System(Compass Point, 2000), Gail Gibbons'sThe Planets(Holiday, 1993), and their plethora of companion travelogues make more reliable choices.–John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.