Overview
The 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner
In an astonishing unfurling of our universe, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer and Caldecott Honor winner Ekua Holmes celebrate the birth of every child. Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was . . . nothing. But then . . . BANG Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations by Ekua Holmes capture the void before the Big Bang and the ensuing life that burst across galaxies. A seamless blend of science and art, this picture book reveals the composition of our world and beyond -- and how we are all the stuff of stars.
Details
- ISBN-13: 9780763678838
- ISBN-10: 076367883X
- Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
- Publish Date: September 2018
- Dimensions: 12.13 x 10.75 x 0.44 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.35 pounds
- Page Count: 40
- Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Related Categories
BookPage® Reviews
A stunning depiction of the beginning of all things
In this wondrous meditation on the origins of life, readers see matter expand and time and space blossom. In spare free verse, Newbery Medal-winning author Marion Dane Bauer kicks off The Stuff of Stars with the “deep, deep dark.” There is only a speck in the vast blackness. But once our universe is born, the pages explode with vivid oranges, reds and blues. Caldecott Honor winner Ekua Holmes’ dazzling collage illustrations—rendered on handmade marbleized paper—feature deep, rich colors and remarkably kinetic lines. Holmes takes highly abstract concepts and makes them sing, swirl and spin on the pages. Bauer fills the text with animated, bustling verbs: After all, the creation of life itself takes great colliding, stretching, expanding and exploding.
Three spreads are devoted to the formation of Earth—a planet with “just the right tilt” to support life—where animals, including humans, eventually begin to thrive. Bauer then seamlessly weaves in the birth of a child, who also begins as a speck in the darkness. Here, the story’s second-person narration works to great effect, directly addressing the young reader: “You cried tears / that were once salty seas.”
The Stuff of Stars is out of this world.
This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
