“What goes up must come down”--Blood, Sweat & Tears
Why must it come down? Why, gravity, of course!“Gravity makes objects fall to Earth. Without gravity, everything wouldfloat away. The Moon would drift away from the Earth. The Earth woulddrift away from the Sun. Luckily, everything has gravity.”Most of us take gravity for granted. But when gravity ceasesfunctioning, the words making up the text of Jason Chin’s GRAVITY float away, makingthem part of the fun, high-flying visual tale about the fundamentals of thisphysical force.
The letters in those words accompany a young boy’s toy astronaut and toyspaceship, his banana, sand bucket, and scores of other miscellaneousobjects that have previously been sitting on a beach but are now floating awayfrom Earth. Meanwhile, the young boy grabs hold of a boulder and stays put.Eventually, after some further textual and visual explanation of howgravity works, the force resumes its pull and everything drops back to Earth.The young boy’s toys and snack end up falling into a yard where some younggirls had been operating a lemonade stand. Meanwhile, their pitcher oflemonade, which had floated away, fortuitously lands in the hands of the boy at the beach.
A two-page author’s note explains even more about gravity and relatedconcepts such as mass and orbits.
This is great science for the very young.Jason Chin is able to do weightlessness and gravity like nobody’sbusiness. Through his artwork, I can feel what it is like to be adrift in spacewhere objects have little or no weight.
The cover, which reminds me of being a child and watching the NASAbroadcasts of sunrise from outer space, surely has to be the cover of the year.
32 pages 978-1-59643-717-3 Ages 4-9
Recommended by: Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
To see more of his recommendations: Richie's Picks (https://richiespicks.com/)