Meet the Planets

Meet the planets is assuredly what youngsters will do when, along with the small child narrator and accompanying dog, they blast off into space aboard the space rocket that awaits them one moonlit night.

Through Caryl Hart’s rhyming narrative we listen to introductions voiced by in turn, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and the Moon, the red planet Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto with ‘buddy’ Charon. In chatty mode, each one tells readers of its key features: the Sun warns ‘I’m friendly but don’t get too close now or I’ll frizzle you up to a fry!’ while Mars talks of its ‘rust-coloured dust that those pesky winds blow round my head.’ Uranus informs ‘golly, I’m f-freezing! / I’m a great swirling windy ice ball’ and lonely Neptune reveals its ‘Ice-Giant’ other name.

Nocturnal adventure complete, it’s time to head back where a cosy bed awaits for one adventurer to snuggle down in. With her bold colour palette, Bethan Woollvin’s alluring illustrations immediately grab the attention, as she personifies each planet in turn, in this exciting whizz around the solar system for aspiring astronomers. Gently educational, but most important, enormous fun, this is also a smashing unconventional bedtime story.