From the moment she tumbles out of bed, young Leda, portrayed with light brown skin, places the blame for her off-kilter day with the biggest force of them all: “Gravity was in a bad mood. Again.” This Mercury-retrograde-like occurrence means that nothing goes right in Leda’s orbit—a series of slips, spills, and trips at home lead to more of the same at school. Smartly choreographed mixed-media cartoons use realism to depict a comic cascade of woe, including a major fail in the class pyramid-building contest and a bibliographic mess caused by a runaway library cart. Even when a lesson reveals gravity’s value (“Without the sun’s gravity, our solar system would fly apart”), the force seems intent on getting Leda down. But Mom knows how to get things back in sync: a cosmic reboot at the local children’s museum’s interactive space exhibit. In this funny, fresh take on a day gone wrong, Van Draanen (Mr. Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters) and Li (Hello, Opportunity) are sympathetic to their protagonist’s travails, presenting readers with the opportunity to see in resilient Leda—and themselves—that whatever gravity may throw down, they’ll rise above it. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. Illustrator’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary. (Jan.)

Gr 1–3 —Readers will be delighted to learn that gravity causes our falls, spills, and tumbles; in fact, "Leda knew the minute she fell out of bed—gravity was in a bad mood." So begins Leda's day grappling with gravity: splattering food, fumbling and stumbling, and generally having a rough time. A lesson at school helps to explain some rules of the scientific concept, but an afterschool trip to the children's museum with her mom really brings Leda and gravity to some kind of an understanding. Van Draanen presents a fun exploration of gravity by making the science lesson engaging and accessible. And most everyone can relate to Leda and her clumsy day! Li's illustrations colorfully depict the romp with gravity and Leda's every emotion. VERDICT Recommended purchase to strengthen and broaden science picture book collections; this makes concepts accessible to children and educators looking for another way into physics.—Cassie Veselovsky