by Alicia Rudnicki, Library Mix

11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System, by David Aguilar, National Geographic Children's Books, 2008,
ISBN 978-14-2-630236-7

Did you know that the moon is made of the very same stuff as Earth? So why is it barren? David R. Aguilar has a quick, clear answer: The gravity of our moon is insufficient to “hold onto an atmosphere,” which is why there are no essentials such as water.

Aguilar is the director of science information at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and past director of the University of Colorado’s Fiske Planetarium. He is also the author of the 2008 children’s book 11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System published by National Geographic.

National Geographic creates beautifully illustrated, well-explained nonfiction for children. Aguilar’s vivid illustrations and brief, information-packed text add up to a spectacular example.

In 2006, Aguilar explains, astronomers reclassified certain celestial bodies within our solar system, such as Pluto, as “dwarf planets.”

Ceres, another dwarf planet, used to be considered an asteroid and is the largest object in the asteroid belt circling the sun just beyond Mars.

At the far reaches of our solar system, there is another ring of space debris called the Kuiper (pronounced like “wiper”) Belt. It contains the eleventh and coldest dwarf planet, Eris, which is larger than Pluto and has its own moon.

Aguilar notes that there are other celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt that “may someday be added to the list of dwarf planets.”

Here are some other fascinating facts gleaned from 11 Planets:
• The canyon Valles Marinaris on Mars “would stretch from New York to San Francisco.”
• Jupiter has at least 63 moons and radiates twice as much heat as it absorbs from the Sun.
• The “gas giant” Saturn has such low density “that if you dropped it into water, it would float like a cork.”
• Neptune hasn’t completed a full orbit of the Sun since it was discovered 160 years ago.

11 Planets is the kind of book that a space-loving child will ask to revisit often for bedtime reading. Parents may also want to visit National Geographic Kids online with their children to meet Maryn Smith of Montana, who won a contest to create a memory device for recalling the names of the planets. Maryn’s contribution appears at the beginning of Aguilar’s book and at the end of this article.

My—Mercury
Very—Venus
Exciting—Earth
Magic—Mars
Carpet—Ceres
Just—Jupiter
Sailed—Saturn
Under—Uranus
Nine—Neptune
Palace—Pluto
Elephants—Eris

11 Planets should sail off the library shelves with ease. One final thought, children love to gaze the night skies. Here is a site with approximate dates of upcoming meteor showers.