Outer Space Bedtime Race

October 15, 2014
A melding of fact and fiction strives to present a bedtime lesson on the solar system. Two earthling children drift off to sleep as the book opens, and successive spreads describe the bedtime routines of sleepy little extraterrestrials on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Endpapers underscore the title's reference to a "race" by depicting the planets as first-through-ninth-place medals according to their respective distances from the sun. This seems to refer more to solar years instead of days with regard to the measurement of the time (how long it takes to travel around the sun, versus how long it takes for a day to pass), which muddies the bedtime theme a bit. After all, planetary days are dictated by rotation and vary in length without necessarily corresponding to the annual "race" around the sun. Backmatter entitled "Sleepy Bedtime Planet Factoids" help to ground the text in scientific facts about the planets, but this can't fully mitigate how stumbling rhymes and twee wordplay grate-"Uranus is a gassy place. / They sleep with masks stuck to each face." Won's digital artwork has a retro sensibility. An isolated inclusion of a brown-skinned boy on the second spread smacks of tokenism, since all other representations of human children depict the same Caucasian boys (the children of Neptune display more diversity by comparison). Stronger bedtime and alien books abound in the universe of children's literature. (Picture book. 3-5)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-While children race to bed each night on Earth in familiar ways, aliens have their own rituals for falling asleep. In Outer Space Bedtime Race, readers are introduced to concepts about the solar system through a rhyming portrayal of bedtime across the galaxy. The text is a healthy mix of information and downright silliness: "The Mercury kids land rocket ships, then hurry to their nightly dips. They glide along on rocky paths to steamy crater bubble baths." The trip through outer space is fancifully depicted by Won with stellar graphic art. The illustrations capture details of each planet including rings, moons, and even volcanoes. VERDICT Paired with the factoid sheet at the end of the book, this funny bedtime story will be a great companion to nonfiction books about outer space.-Megan Egbert, Meridian Library District, ID

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.