A dearly drawn cat named Felicity — honoring Félicette, a stray cat in Paris who became the first cat in space on October 18, 1963 — takes us on an exploration of stargazing. As a book on observational astronomy, it’s an exciting book for kids and adults alike.
Short paragraphs cover what to wear when stargazing, where to go for maximum viewing, the classification of stars, constellations, planets, galaxies, and short-short stories behind the constellations of each season. The sun, the moon … what exactly are we seeing when we gaze up at the stars?
This book will whet appetites for further study but, more importantly, I believe it will encourage kids to venture outside, to open their eyes, to explore the unknown … because this book is friendly, understandable, and sumptuous. It’s so inviting that I know that, as a child, I would have returned to it again and again, memorizing facts, and doing my best to understand the large concepts of the space surrounding our earth.
A glossary and an index make this book useful for home and classroom reference. And there’s so much inspiring information!
Highly recommended.
A Cat’s Guide to the Night Sky
written by Stuart Atkinson
illustrated by Brendan Keaney
Laurence King Publishing, 2018
ISBN 978−1−7862−7073−3