A Little Blue Dot, written and illustrated by Maren Hasenjäger and published by Mama Makes Books, is a fantastic way to introduce young children to the concept of the Solar System. It shares information about the Sun and the planets in a really enjoyable and accessible manner, by telling the story of how Earth feels inferior to all her celestial neighbours and how they try to convince her otherwise. It was originally published in Germany and has just been released in the UK.
It's exactly the kind of book that our school reading champions would love reading with classes further down the school, so I asked three of them, Harry, Lily and Thomas, to share their thoughts on it and write a short review.
Harry: "I really, really like A Little Blue Dot because it explains all about the Solar System and gives you lots of facts about the planets and about dwarf planets. I love the illustrations because they're bright and colourful, and I know that younger children will love them too. It talks about how all the planets are special except Earth, but in the end they're all as good as each other. I think that's a really important message, not just for the planets but for people too. I think this book is perfect for Years 1, 2 and 3, and will be recommending it in our assembly on Friday."
Lily: "The first thing I loved about A Little Blue Dot was the illustrations because they are so colourful and have smiley faces. It's really fascinating finding out about the planets and all the different facts like how far they are from the sun and how many moons they have. Saturn actually has the most, even though it's not the biggest. I love how there is a child at the end of the book who tells Earth that she is more important than she thinks she is. It's about planets but that's a really important message for everyone really. When I'm in the library, I'll enjoy sharing this with people."
Thomas: "This book is great because it explains that everyone is different in some good ways and that jealousy is never the answer to being happy. It tells the story from the point of the view of all the planets, which is very smart of the author so well done to them. It's written so younger children can understand it, with all the planets having cute smiley faces, and that will attract kids to the book. They just need to remember that the planets don't really have smiley faces but that's something to talk about after they've read it. I also learned some facts about the planets from the pages at the start and end of the book. There is something called the Kuiper Belt which is really interesting. I think it's called a belt as it goes round the Sun, like a belt goes around a person. This is a 10/10 book. I'm glad we're going to have it in our library as I think it will be popular."
Thank you Harry, Lily and Thomas for your thoughts! I totally agree with you. It's a great book for reading and talking about with younger children. It will definitely inspire them to think about space and hopefully take an occasional look into the night sky.
For readers who want to take things a step further, there are several free activities for A Little Blue Dot available on the publisher's website, including a Top Trumps game and a short quiz. A huge thank you to Susan Barry at Mama Makes Books for inviting me to be part of the blog tour. I'm looking forward to reading all the other contributions over the week.
Links to Twitter/X
Publisher: @mamamakesbooks
Author: @paraplyene
