Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years

I loved this book for many different reasons. One thing that contributed to why I loved the book was the language the author used in it. In this book, the author personified the Earth by having it narrate the story in a funny and realistic way. For example, in the beginning of the book, the Earth

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says, “I have seven siblings in my solar system”. This simple phrase engages readers by making it relatable for them in a clever way. By comparing the other planets as Earth’s siblings, the book provides a relatable way to teach readers about the solar system. Another example in this book is when the Earth describes its creation by saying it was “explosive. Gassy!” and “very cranky,” using funny words to describe a scientific theory of the Earth’s origin. By using funny words to describe this theory, the author entertains the readers and engages them more in the book.

Something else that I really liked in this book was the illustrations. The illustrations in the book contained vibrant colors and were cartoon-like, making it more entertaining for the readers. For example, in the middle of the book, when the narrator described its major life events, the illustrator had each of these events in a postcard-like drawing with a tan background, imitating a scrapbook. This illustration further personifies the Earth by making the Earth’s memories in a format that people use so that it is more relatable to readers. Another example is towards the end of the book, when the illustrator had an asteroid drawn as an evil character flying towards the Earth, and displayed the Earth as the scared protagonist. This depiction of the Earth and an asteroid not only personified these two things to make them more relatable to readers, but it also created suspenseful action that engaged readers even more into the story. The main message of this book is that the Earth is a beautiful planet filled with a lot of wonderful things, has had a long history, and should be treated well by humans.

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I read this for the "Set In Space" part of my 2020 reading challenge. I enjoyed the science and the vivid illustrations, it was a cute introduction to our planet.

Here's a fun little introduction to earth science and history, narrated by Earth itself! Seems to me like it's at a nice and introductory level, with simplified concepts that don't devolve into distracting metaphors (except Pluto as the family dog). I do think a little more could have been said

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about the layers of the earth--there's a labeled picture, but no explanation of what each layer is, unlike in the rest of the book. And while I do applaud McAnulty's two-page-spread effort to acknowledge that people are hurting Earth in some ways, the following, final spread is an abrupt tone switch just to end on a high note. Might have been cool to see pictures of how humans can help fix Earth, instead of just enjoying it.

A little uneven info distribution and tone switching don't detract from how useful an introduction this is to where our planet comes from.

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Stacy McAnulty and David Litchfield pair again for another great book. In this light-hearted but informational text, the story of earth is told. Humor is injected when mentioning Pluto as the favorite pet instead of a sibling like the planets. Proper terms could be included such as revolve,

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revolution, rotate, etc. Instead the text reads, " My favorite thing to do are spinning--it takes me a whole day to go around once--and circling the sun. That takes me an entire year." Using these terms would have improved the text, while still keeping it simple. Children benefit from learning the correct names of natural phenomena. To contrast this, the text later mentions Pangea, Ur and Nuna--not as common of terms! A timeline is included along with mention of humankind's effect on earth. The book concludes with a two-page spread that includes more information about various topics mentioned. McAnulty does mention her goal was to bring an "accurate, brief (and entertaining) history of planet Earth. She accomplishes this.

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