In Praise of Mystery

Starred review from July 1, 2024

PreS-Gr 2-Lim�n's words will travel nearly two billion miles to Jupiter's second moon, Europa, via NASA spacecraft in the fall of 2024. The poem speaks to the power of the "mysteries below our sky" and the value in retaining one's sense of wonder while journeying into the larger world. "We are creatures of constant awe, / curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom, / at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow." The gentle, contemplative touch of the poet is evident in the rhythm and fluidity of the language and bolstered by the work of S�s's encompassing and elegant illustrations-a layered mix of watercolors, pen, and ink that pair beautifully with the spare and delicate poetry. His art, like Lim�n's writing, is rooted in the elements but threaded through with magic, filling the book with tranquil shades of blue and green. Each page features a scatter of Lim�n's sharply honed words against a backdrop of the natural world, with emphasis on bodies of water and the vast sky. The book, while fairly brief, reveals something new upon each reading: a testament to the wonder and mystery that Lim�n writes about so movingly. This would be a lovely and innovative addition to a classroom lesson on space exploration. VERDICT This ode to beauty and the still-to-be-explored corners of the universe will find an audience among elementary school students and educators.-Kate Newcombe

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Starred review from July 22, 2024
The cadenced text of this deliberately paced poem by U.S. poet laureate Limón, making her children’s book debut, will be etched on Europa Clipper, a spacecraft launching in October 2024 that will head toward Jupiter and its moons. Addressing watery Europa (“O second moon”), the work’s speaker draws everyday existence on planet Earth into relationship with that remote celestial body. “From earth,” early lines scan, “we read the sky/ as if it is an unerring book/ of the universe...// Still, there are mysteries below our sky”—mysteries that render our planet’s inhabitants “creatures of constant awe,/ curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom.” In spreads of textured, primal blue that evoke depth and distance, Caldecott Honoree Sís depicts earthly figures adrift in air and water: birds and whales, a book of knowledge, a bloom-filled tree enclosed in a drop of water. Both delicately and expansively wrought, it’s a work of unity that describes how, though separated by unimaginable distance, the realms are connected by water and more: “We, too, are made of wonders, of great/ and ordinary loves,// of small invisible worlds,// of a need to call out through the dark.” The poem’s text and an author’s note conclude. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Rob McQuilkin, Massie and McQuilkin. Illustrator’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Book Group.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
In U.S. Poet Laureate Lim�n's debut picture book, soaring images and lyrics invite contemplation of life's wonders--on Earth and perhaps, tantalizingly, elsewhere. "O second moon," writes Lim�n, "we, too, are made / of water, // of vast and beckoning seas." In visual responses to a poem that will be carried by NASA'sEuropa Clipper, a probe scheduled for launch in October 2024 and designed to check Jupiter's ice-covered ocean moon for possible signs of life, S�s offers flowing glimpses of earthly birds and whales, of heavenly bodies lit with benevolent smiles, and a small light-skinned space traveler flying between worlds in a vessel held aloft by a giant book. Following the undulations of the poet's cadence, falling raindrops give way to shimmering splashes, then to a climactic fiery vision reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh'sStarry Night before finishing with mirrored human figures made of stars. Visual images evocative of the tree of life presage what L�mon writes in her afterword: that her poem is as much about "our own precious planet" as it is about what may lie in wait for us to discover on others. "We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, // of small invisible worlds, // of a need to call out through the dark." A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be.(Picture book. 7-10)

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