Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet

by Curtis Manley, Jessica Lanan (Illustrator)

Overview

Do you wonder if humans
are the only beings who wonder
if they are alone in the universe?

Our sun is a star.
In the night sky are all kinds of stars,
and orbiting those stars are planets like the ones in our own solar system.

Could those planets have life like we do on Earth?

Planet Earth is not too big,
not too small, not too hot,
and not too cold. It’s just right.
Our very own Goldilocks planet . . . .

Follow a young girl as she explores these questions in this gorgeous book about the wondrous search for another Goldilocks planet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250155337
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	136,991
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Curtis Manley grew up building model rockets and reading science fiction about aliens and long trips to other star systems—none of which had Jupiter-like planets close to their stars. Later he studied volcanoes and the geology of other planets and moons. In the high desert of Idaho he mapped huge lava flows similar to ones on Venus. Curtis lives near Seattle with his wife and their daughter, who was born the year that the first exoplanet around a sun-like star was discovered.

Curtis is the author of Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet and Shawn Loves Sharks.

Jessica Lanan has long been enchanted by the mysteries of the cosmos. Exoplanets are too far away for her to visit, but illustrating them is the next best thing. Jessica currently lives in her native state of Colorado with her husband, three-legged cat, and baby daughter, who was born during the making of Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet.

Jessica's illustrations can also be found in Finding Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis and His Brother Warnie.

Editorial Reviews

10/08/2018
Readers join a brown-skinned girl with a polka-dotted backpack as she asks questions about the stars and visits a space museum, where she watches exoplanets careen overhead in a planetarium. In sweeping, inky art, Lanan captures the child’s dawning awareness of the vastness of the universe. Manley’s writing swings gracefully between factual descriptions (“Earth orbits in our solar system’s ‘habitable zone’ ”) and more lyrical observations: “All stars twinkle, but some stars also seem to wink at us... as if saying, ‘I know a secret.’ ” Back home after the museum trip, the child considers the types of life-forms that might be out there. Richly informative prose and intimate yet expansive art show a child’s contagious enthusiasm for the book’s subject. Includes a timeline of astronomical discoveries and suggestions for further reading. Ages 5–9. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "The enthusiastic main character lightens what could be weighty scientific information, providing an entry point for newcomers. Lanan’s pleasing, watercolorlike artwork moves between expansive visions of outer space and panels that highlight key concepts. VERDICT An ideal addition for libraries building or updating STEAM collections."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Richly informative prose and intimate yet expansive art show a child’s contagious enthusiasm for the book’s subject." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ Winter 2018

Gr 2–5—Beginning with the insights of astronomers such as Lucretius and Giordano Bruno and continuing with the observations of a fictional young black girl from the present day, this illuminating book examines the possibility of life on other planets. Manley presents scientific certainties and theories alongside the child and her family's trip to a museum. One spread features text about Earth-like exoplanets paired with illustrations of the girl gazing off open-mouthed at the promising habitable planet surface that exists, for her, beyond the walls of the museum. On some pages, she muses, "If someday we do find evidence of beings like ourselves, what could we do? …We could send them art and poetry and music." The enthusiastic main character lightens what could be weighty scientific information, providing an entry point for newcomers. Lanan's pleasing, watercolorlike artwork moves between expansive visions of outer space and panels that highlight key concepts. VERDICT An ideal addition for libraries building or updating STEAM collections.—Elaine Fultz, Madison Jr. Sr. High School, Middletown, OH

School Library Journal

2018-10-28

A young girl looks out her window, pondering the universe. A subsequent family trip to the planetarium gives her a lot to think about.

Are we alone in the universe? Are there other "Goldilocks planets" out there capable of sustaining life, planets that are "not too hot and not too cold, not too big and not too small, not too soft and not too hard" but "just right"? Older adult readers might hear the voice of Carl Sagan in the narrative, an authoritative, planetarium-movie voice explaining the universe with a focus on "exoplanets," planets that orbit stars outside of our solar system. Kids may imagine Neal DeGrasse Tyson. Woven through the text are the twin narratives of the girl and her family's visit to the planetarium and its "Searching for Exoplanets" exhibition. The illustrations, suffused with glowing light, are dynamically varied, including a colorful double-page spread of the Milky Way galaxy, panels carrying information, fanciful visions of other worlds, and an all-black spread with just one stark sentence in white: "Or maybe it's like nothing we can even imagine." Lanan effectively balances the girl's visual narrative with the heavier scientific exposition of the text. The girl, who has exuberantly kinky hair, and her family present black; other planetarium guests are a diverse group. Thorough backmatter includes books, websites, astronomy clubs, and various websites for further exploration.

An attractive and informative volume for young stargazers. (Informational picture book. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews