Today’s children – the generation that may put a colony on Mars – will grow up knowing that Earth, Mars and the other planets are part of a “family of planets,” in a “neighborhood” that circles the Sun. The books they grow up with, such as Going Around the Sun: Some Planetary Fun, take that kind of perspective in stride.

As a former director of children’s theater as well as a former teacher and librarian, Marianne Berkes has just the aptitude to pull off a book about astronomy that is both entertaining and informative. To the tune of the old ballad “Over in the Meadow,” children count the planets, learn their names, and discover some amazing things about them. Jupiter for instance, is “A gigantic ball of gas/ Here is planet number five.” A ball of gas? Yes, that’s right!

Real-life astronomers love this little book. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, wrote, “If the Sun were a poet, then Going Around the Sun captures just what it would say to its beloved family of planets.” And Bruce Betts, Director of Projects at The Planetary Society, said, “Going Around the Sun combines good science with good fun.”

Illustrator Janeen Mason of Stuart, Florida, has since 1989 studied and painted life in the oceans. Janeen is a prominent Florida artist and a member of the Florida Arts Council, the advisory board to the Secretary of State regarding culture in the state. She created the backgrounds to each of the planetary illustrations by melting crayons on heated paper, which created a unique and textured background suggestive of space.