Voyage Through Space
Katy Flint and Cornelia Li
Wide Eyed Editions

In the company of a little astronaut and her dog, readers are taken on a journey of adventure in space starting at the Sun, the centre of our solar system.

So it’s space suits and helmets on and off we go exploring the planets, our first stop being Mercury, closest to the Sun and the smallest planet in our solar system. We learn that its surface is covered in craters on account of the meteors that have crashed into it over millions of years; we discover that its temperature varies dramatically; it’s ‘blisteringly hot’ by day and very cold at night. Did you know that on Mercury a year is a mere 88 days long?

Venus is next closest where temperatures can go as high as 460 ℃ – OUCH! This is the hottest planet, has no moon and is impossible to explore.

Next stopping place is the moon, whereon American astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin were the first to land, a good place from which to observe Earth.

The red planet, Mars is the next stop; a place prone to fierce dust storms . A sol (Martian day) is approximately 39 minutes longer than an Earth day.

Passing through the asteroid belt takes the explorers to the largest planet in our solar system and fifth from the sun. NASA’s Juno spacecraft is currently studying Jupiter with its liquid surface and clouds of toxic gases.

The ringed planet, Saturn is the next destination. There strong hurricanes rage and the surface is mostly liquids and swirling gases. I was amazed to learn that a year on Saturn is more than 29 Earth years.

Uranus glows blue when seen in the distance from Saturn. That’s the next place viewed. Its surface is the coldest in the universe and the explorers are unable to stand thereon as its surface is gaseous, although beneath the blue-green gas clouds, scientists believe enormous gems are to be found. If only …

The final planet on the journey is Neptune, even windier than Jupiter and the furthest from the Sun. Voyager 2 took a whole two years to reach Neptune from Earth. Thereafter the adventurers reach the ‘frisbee-shaped Kuiper belt … Time to head home.

All this information is provided in easily digestible bite size chunks scattered on the relevant spread, most of which is taken up with Cornelia Li’s powerful and intriguing illustration. You can almost feel the intense heat coming from some of the pages and taste with swirling gases from others.
In addition there’s a glow-in-the-dark, fold-out poster at the back of the book to further excite young readers.