Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood

Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Meg Hunt

Rating: 5 stars

Chronicle Books

Earlier this year I forced (yes, forced!) my kids to watched the movie "Cinderella." We were heading to Disneyworld for the first time, and I felt they needed to know the story before arriving at the Magical Kingdom. I argued that it was a classic, and they'd have to know the story to appreciate some parts of Disneyworld and also dozens of books they'd read in their lives. When an author compared their character to Cinderella, I wanted them to know what s/he was writing about.

I was priming them for stories like the one Deborah Underwood has written.

Interstellar Cinderella turns the classic Cinderella tale on its head in some fantastic ways. Cinderella lives with her unkind stepsisters and nasty stepmother--on a different plant, and she's the family mechanic this time, not maid. When her stepsisters get invited to a royal space parade, Cinderella is told she can't attend. Her stepsisters grab her ever-handy toolbox to make sure she doesn't fix her way into going.

"But wait!" the price called after her
"Please tell me how to find--"
The girl was gone--but she had left
Her socket wrench behind.

But her stepsisters didn't count on Cinderella's godrobot, who hooked her up with a new space suit, complete with some handy tools. Cinderella zooms through the galaxy in time to see the parade. She's gets to see the ship of her dreams fly past...and watches it shoot up a cloud of grit and smoke!

The driver and owner of that ship, the prince, is helpless; his chief mechanic has just quit. Interstellar Cinderella comes to his rescue and fixes his ship in a jiffy. He's impressed and smitten! They "talk for hours of rocket ships," but suddenly it's midnight and she has to go home--as she flies away, her wrench falls out of her space suit. He grabs it. You see where this is going...

The next day he goes out looking for her. Girls from all over the galaxy try to fix the ship he's in with the wrench he's got, but they all fail...until Interstellar Cinderella gives it a try and makes it run smoothly.

Then he proposes marriage. Yikes!

(And this is the best part.)

She thought this over carefully.
Her family watched in panic.
"I'm far too young for marriage,
But I'll be your chief mechanic!"

Hip, hip hooray for Deborah Underwood's go-girl spin off of Cinderella! (And hooray for common sense prevailing for child brides!)

It's Only Stanley by Jon Agee

It's Only Stanley by Jon Agee
Dial Books for Young Readers

Rating: 5 stars

I subscribe to a handful of book-filled, kidlit newsletters; many of them include a "books coming out soon" section. It's Only Stanley has been on many of those lists for many weeks. So when it popped up on the holds shelf in the library yesterday, I was curious if it was going to be as good as the hype surrounding it.

Yup, it is.

Jon Agee has this absurd, dry humor that manages to stick with his characters and translate to a picture book in such impressive ways... He makes the totally crazy seem totally normal. And even if you don't deconstruct the book like I did after reading it, you will chuckle at it and your child will likely laugh out loud at it, just like Kiefer did. Each time he had this read to him last night. Which was twice. In a row. That's always a good sign of a good book...

Here's the story:

The Wimbleton family sleeps, and one by one a strange sound wakes them up. Each time, the extraordinary family dog, Stanley, is making the noise. And Stanley is one nocturnal, productive pup. Judging by the father's shrugs and nonchalant reaction, the family is clearly used to such noisy awakenings.

First, Wilma is awoken by a strange tune...but it's just Stanley, howling at the moon. Daughter Wendy then hears one loud CLANK...but it's just Stanley, fixing the oil tank.

"It's only Stanley," Walter said.
"He cleared the bathtub drain."

This goes on all night long, and each sound wakes another member of the family, who travels into the parents' room and into their bed, until the bed is funnily overcrowded with more and more sleepy Wimbleton family members.

Finally, he wakes up the youngest member of the family with some serious vibrations and sounds. Turns out that Stanley managed to transform the entire house into a rocket, and now the house--with the whole family--still in pajamas--is landing on the moon.

Told in a great little rhyme that makes the book even more fun to read aloud (and also allows Kiefer and other kids to guess what Stanley is up to), this book is spot-on fantastic. Such a funny story with non-fussy sketches that pair nicely with bedtime--how can you not have sweet dreams when you chuckle yourself to sleep?

Pluto's Secret by Margaret A. Weitekamp with David DeVorkin

Pluto's Secret: An Icy World's Tale of Discovery by Margaret A. Weitekamp with David DeVorkin

Rating: 5 stars

Yesterday, on the way to the pool, Lorelei read Pluto's Secret.  When we got there, it was break time, so I asked her what she thought of it.  I interrupted her reading of a different book with my question.  Like me, she's not so fond of having her reading interrupted.

"It's nonfiction.  And it's funny nonfiction.  You don't see a lot of that.  Usually nonfiction is so serious.  But if you're so curious about it, why don't you read it?" was her full answer.

I told her the last part was a bit rude but she did have a point.  I shuffled to the car, got the book, and sat down to read it.  I interrupted her one last time before I really began to read: "Do you think someone is going to laugh at me, an adult reading a big picture book, without a kid on my lap?" My remark got no response.

But I kid you not: 30 seconds later a lady walked by and laughed out loud. And not in a very nice way.  I turned and looked at her and she apologized, "Sorry! I couldn't help it!  You just don't see that every day!"

I smiled, held back the long explanation, and went back to my book.

The icy world...was busy dancing with its moons.

I'm sure you heard, as even stuck-in-my-own-world-me heard, that Pluto is no longer a planet.  When my kids read an older science book, I am the one to break it to them or remind them that Pluto is no longer a planet.  This book provides a longer and better explanation than this mom usually provides.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has helped out parents and teachers with this book.  And it is a great book not just for learning Pluto's story (Pluto interjects many parts of it himself in a very fun way) but also to inform kids of how discoveries are made, and how older "facts" need to be reexamined with a fresh eye and a curious mind.

Here are the facts, in case you have to do some explaining before you check out this book (which you really should if you hang around any kid older than five):

• Pluto was declared a planet on 13 March 1930 after the small dot Clyde Tombaugh, through his telescopic camera, moved in the two pictures a few days apart.  This was what planets do: move.  Ergo, that dot must be a planet.
• Eleven-year-old Venetia Burney from England suggested the name "Pluto" because "Pluto is the Roman god of the dark underworld.  The new little planet is so far from the sun that it must be a cold, dark place, too."
• Astronomers soon learned that Pluto didn't always stay in its place.  In fact, it orbited waaaay out past the other planets in the solar system, with other small planet-like things, and in a different path than the other planets.
• This new area where planets--or, maybe they weren't planets--orbited was named the Kuiper belt.
• There was no clear definition of what a planet was, so astronomers voted on a definition: they must orbit the sun, must be round like a ball, and it has to be alone in its orbit. (As the daughter of a guy who was constantly saying "Well, it depends on how you define X," I like that the authors included this in the book. Because you can bet I encourage my kids to define things, too.)
• Therefore, Pluto was recategorized as an icy world--a "something new"--and we have a whole lot more to learn about it.

This book pairs nicely with a field trip to the Air and Space Museum--either downtown D.C. or the one out by us, Udvar Hazy Center.  That's where we're off to tomorrow...


Suggested reading:
A Penguin Story for a simple tale of curiosity, one of Kiefer's favorites (ages 2-5)...
Clouds and other easy reader books in that series for simple explanations of weather (ages 3-6)...
Meet Einstein for simple introduction of Einstein and his major discoveries (ages 4-7)

I Want to Be An Astronaut by Byron Barton

I Want to Be An Astronaut by Byron Barton

Rating: 5 stars

Byron Barton should definitely be required reading for little boys.  His Machines at Work and Building a House are some of our favorites, and we've read all his other books a number of times. 

A few weeks ago my husband encouraged me to get Ben out and do some more fun stuff with him like I did with both kids all summer long.  I love some gentle prodding like that to push me out of my comfort zone, so Ben and I dropped off Lorelei and went to the Air and Space Museum out by us, called the Udvar Hazy Center.  We had a great time, and Ben was totally amazed by all the airplanes, helicopters, and space shuttles.  Of course he's about a decade away from really having the attention span and desire to read all about each and every aircraft, and he's way too young to do the way-cool simulation rides that they have there.  But my husband was really right--it was a cool new thing that got Ben to really look around him and see something new. 

We had a great time walking through everything.  I loved the helicopters the best, and Ben loved the look out tower at the top where you can see planes take off and land from Dulles.  (It would have been my favorite had an airplane actually flown by us, but we were whisked away from it before we could see one because some fancy-schmancy diplomat needed the room cleared for his/her visit.  Humph.)

I let Ben choose two books at the gift shop--one for him and one for Lorelei.  This was his choice for himself, and it didn't surprise me at all.  We've checked it out from the library two or three times, and both kids love it.  The text is very simple and the pictures are bright and glossy and uncomplicated.  "I want to be an astronaut, / a member of the crew, / and fly on the shuttle / into outer space."

Who wouldn't want to do that?  And I wonder: what will be our kids' options for space exploration? 

Man on the Moon (A Day in the Life of Bob) by Simon Bartram

Man on the Moon (A Day in the Life of Bob) by Simon Bartram

Rating: 4.5 stars

And now for something completely different...

A Peace Corps pal of mine recommended this book to me.  She said her two boys, who a little older than Lorelei and Ben, love to find the little aliens on each page.  Their funny little alien faces--some with three eyes, some with eyes coming out of their heads, others more human except for their green skin--make this one of the best look-and-finds we've read.

Bob looks for aliens but can't find any...but we do!

And there's a story, too!  Bob is the Man on the Moon, a regular, Earth-living guy whose job it is to fly to the moon every morning (I asked Lorelei this morning while we read this, "Does Daddy take a rocket to work?" she thought that was funny) and clean it up.  It gets dirty from all the tourists from Earth, you know.  The pictures of him vacuuming the moon are pretty funny.  Then he and his two buddies, the Man on Mars and the Man on Saturn, do some funny dances for the tourists that blast by.  He then lectures them about the moon and sells moon souvenirs.  The whole time, little aliens are crawling all over the background.  Bob insists that there are no such thing as aliens, which makes Lorelei and Ben shout out to him, "Bob!  There ARE aliens!  Look!"

VERY cute book, and one that is just different in a great way.