“This is the blanket where Violet sits, eating a sandwich, an apple, and chips.” From that humble, small beginning, the perspective and the cumulative rhymes spiral out to encompass the park where Violet sits (with her two parents), the city it is in, the “tiny blue planet with a moon so pretty” that it is on, then the solar system, the galaxy, galactic clusters, and the universe. Violet peers upwards through her telescope to take it all in, guided by a book about space. She imagines another Violet far out in the universe, looking back at us, as the perspective slides back down to our planet, and the park, where the parents tuck a now-sleepy Violet under her blanket.
The book evokes the 1977 short film “Powers of Ten,” but avoids the math for a simpler and more poetic look at the universe. Author Allan Wolf builds the engaging rhymes to cosmic scale, but never forgets the little girl at the heart of it all.
Lauren Tobia’s illustrations capture the grandeur of the galaxies, but also the small family moments between Violet and her parents and the sense of wonder with which she looks into the sky. One parent reads as Black, and is of ambiguous gender; the other has lighter brown skin and a small beard. Violet’s skin is the same as her lighter-skinned parent. I’m tagging this book both for “Gay/queer man/dad(s)” and “Nonbinary/genderqueer parent/adult(s)” not because those identities are definitive here, but because they seem the most likely and I want readers seeking such books to be able to find this one.
Absolutely lovely, with a gentle message about our place in the universe—both a STEM lesson and a poetic one. Perfect for budding astronomers or anyone who simply likes to look at the stars.
(Also, a pro tip, since I was an astronomy major myself: If you’re out stargazing, don’t use plain white headlamps like Violet and her parents. Cover them with red cellophane so as not to ruin your night vision.)
