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Once Upon a Star: A Poetic Journey Through Space

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By James Carter
Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018. Nonfiction.
This beautifully compiled book is the story of how our solar system came into existence through the Big Bang Theory. With elegant rhymes and stunning illustrations, the book explains how everything we know--the world around us, the stars and the sun--formed from nothing. It’s tentative theme of stars wraps around to the end, when the story comes back from a universal view to a question. “What about you?” it answers the question with a triumphant “you are a star!”

My favorite part is the extra “sciencey” facts at the back of the book for those eager readers who were intrigued by what they learned from the book. This book is best if read aloud, as the poetry of it will captivate any age of reader. You’ll be able to see and hear the beauty of a giant universe and your role in it.
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