The 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner
In an astonishing unfurling of our universe, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer and Caldecott Honor winner Ekua Holmes celebrate the birth of every child.
Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was . . . nothing. But then . . . BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations by Ekua Holmes capture the void before the Big Bang and the ensuing life that burst across galaxies. A seamless blend of science and art, this picture book reveals the composition of our world and beyond - and how we are all the stuff of stars.
The 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner
In an astonishing unfurling of our universe, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer and Caldecott Honor winner Ekua Holmes celebrate the birth of every child.
Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was . . . nothing. But then . . . BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations by Ekua Holmes capture the void before the Big Bang and the ensuing life that burst across galaxies. A seamless blend of science and art, this picture book reveals the composition of our world and beyond - and how we are all the stuff of stars.
Marion Dane Bauer is an award-winning author of more than
one hundred books for young people, including the Newbery Honor
Book On My Honor. Formerly on the faculty of the Vermont College of
Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, she
now writes full-time. Marion Dane Bauer lives in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
Ekua Holmes is the illustrator of two previous picture
books: Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil
Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which she won the
John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award and a Caldecott Honor;
and Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander,
Chris Colderley, and Marjory Wentworth, for which she received the
2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Ekua Holmes lives in
Boston.
Carl Sagan’s famous quote, “We are made of star stuff,” is brought
to life in a captivating picture book that will be cherished by
people of all ages. Mesmerizing illustrations are a perfect fit for
this story, which tells of the beginning of our universe and of
life itself, starting with a small floating speck that suddenly
explodes..Bauer’s (Winter Dance, 2017) lyrical free-verse love song
to Earth, to the listener, and to all creatures is accessible to
everyone living on “one lucky planet, a fragile blue ball we call
Earth.”
—Booklist (starred review)
It's a stunning achievement to present to readers the factual
events that created the birth of the universe, the planet Earth,
and life on Earth with such an expressive, powerful creativity of
words paired with illustrations so evocative of the awe and magic
of the cosmos. But then the story goes one brilliant step further
and gives the birth of a child the same beginning, the same sense
of magic, the same miracle. Wow.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
In spare, supple verse, Newbery Honor author Bauer (Winter Dance)
tells a big story...In a brilliant stroke of visual imagination,
Caldecott Honor artist Holmes (Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets)
uses the swirls and waves of marbled paper to represent the ebb and
flow of cosmic matter. Her spreads appear to move and shift on a
grand scale, while Bauer suggests that, just possibly, the power of
creation and the power of love are not so different.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Poetic language and dazzling illustrations link the big bang to a
child’s birth in this striking picture book...An inspiring match of
writing and art. Perfect for one-on-one sharing.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Holmes' dark and fiery illustrations capture the mood of the story
about the void before the Big Bang and ensuing life that burst
across galaxies. In the end, we are all the stuff of stars.
—St. Paul Pioneer Press
In this wondrous meditation on the origins of life, readers see
matter expand and time and space blossom...The Stuff of Stars is
out of this world.
—BookPage
Where do we come from? Where do babies come from? The answer is
awe-inspiring, energetic and powerful. Holmes’s deep blues and reds
and sunlit, primordial skies celebrate the mysteries of the
universe, the blue planet Earth and the birth of a child.
—Washington Post
This book appears to be part of a 2018 trend: Big Bang picture
books that reduce down to the importance of the child reading this
story. But only one of these books is as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as
this one. I could stare, entranced, at the papers used in this book
for hours and hours and hours.
—A Fuse #8 Production (blog)
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
