If Sun Could Speak

If Sun Could Speak 
by Kourtney LaFavre; illus by Saki Tanaka
36 pages; ages 5 - 8
Spork, 2020

theme: sun, night & day

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the sun – a glorious star.

Told in first person, this book introduces STEM concepts about day, night, planetary motion, and light. Kourtney LaFavre also introduces some world mythology about the sun and some scientific observations people have made from 99 BC to modern day.

What I like about this book: I like the timetable of discoveries about planets, stars, and the universe, from Lucretius and his On the Nature of Things to Stephen Hawking. So many important discoveries, such as light moves in a straight line, and Earth moves around the Sun, and how to tell what stars are made of. LaFavre includes the powerful message that readers can create their own experiments to answer questions they have about the natural world.

I caught up with Kourtney a couple weeks ago by email to ask her One Question ~

Sally: Kudos for scoring an interview with the sun. How did you decide to write using Sun's POV?

Kourtney: I think I was about five or six when I first discovered that the sun doesn’t actually rise and set. I had assumed that the sun was moving up and down in the sky, because the word RISE means to move upward. That was the definition that my five year old self understood, and five year old brains are very literal. It totally blew my mind that it was the earth’s movement that created sunrises and sunsets. And I felt mad that I was mislead to believe inaccurate information. I was frustrated whenever I heard people say anything about the sun RISING. That’s where the concept of a book told from the sun’s perspective began, to clear up any misunderstandings about the sun.

She explains more about her inspiration for the book in this blog post.

Beyond the Books:

Before clocks, people used the sun to tell the time. You can too – just build a sun dial.

Kourtney posted a bunch of activities on her blog. You can find them here.

Kourtney LaFavre is part of #STEAMTeam2020. You can find out more about her here.

Today we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.