On a broad, continuous, accordion-folded strip tucked between oversize covers, an excursion from the Earth's surface to the far reaches of the solar system and back.Beginning and ending with the dark-skinned, green-eyed child on the cover, Zommer's painted illustrations lead readers' eyes upward past high-rise buildings and through the atmosphere's layers to the International Space Station, then on beyond to the moon and the planets. Then, after pausing to regard the distant stars and the Milky Way, the journey back allows glimpses of comets and meteoroids, types of clouds, migrating birds of several species, mountain sheep, and swooping hang gliders before coming to rest on a grassy hilltop. The artist adds details aplenty to spot along the way, from paper airplanes and space telescopes to small human figures (in the terrestrial scenes) with, mostly, brown or solid black faces. Printed in undulating clusters of type that suggest flowing winds and rounded orbits, Gullain's narrative reads with natural ease from bottom to top up to the midway point, then descends—tallying wonders while pointing out street signs and window cleaners, a cutaway Soyuz capsule, each planet, and other details as it goes and also keeping track of heights and distances. A soaring imaginary journey for young readers wondering about their places in space. (atmosphere chart) (Informational novelty. 6-10)

On a broad, continuous, accordion-folded strip tucked between oversize covers, an excursion from the Earth's surface to the far reaches of the solar system and back.Beginning and ending with the dark-skinned, green-eyed child on the cover, Zommer's painted illustrations lead readers' eyes upward past high-rise buildings and through the atmosphere's layers to the International Space Station, then on beyond to the moon and the planets. Then, after pausing to regard the distant stars and the Milky Way, the journey back allows glimpses of comets and meteoroids, types of clouds, migrating birds of several species, mountain sheep, and swooping hang gliders before coming to rest on a grassy hilltop. The artist adds details aplenty to spot along the way, from paper airplanes and space telescopes to small human figures (in the terrestrial scenes) with, mostly, brown or solid black faces. Printed in undulating clusters of type that suggest flowing winds and rounded orbits, Gullain's narrative reads with natural ease from bottom to top up to the midway point, then descends—tallying wonders while pointing out street signs and window cleaners, a cutaway Soyuz capsule, each planet, and other details as it goes and also keeping track of heights and distances. A soaring imaginary journey for young readers wondering about their places in space. (atmosphere chart) (Informational novelty. 6-10)

This companion to The Street Beneath My Feet uses a concertina format to take readers on two journeys from the ground to outer space. Both begin with the same child looking skyward. On one side of the book-s enormous gatefold, Gullain focuses on the interplay between strata and human-made objects, beginning in a city: at six miles above earth, readers see a helicopter in the troposphere; at 200 miles above Earth, readers see a Soyuz capsule. On the other side, the child relaxes in a woodland glen, and the trip upward features birds, weather systems, the aurora borealis, and more. Zommer illustrates in grainy, marbled art and includes clear, factual descriptions. Expanding to over eight feet, the book provides an understanding of relative scale and a greater sense of the enormity of space. Ages 4-7. (Aug.)