A Planet is a Poem
A Planet is a Poem
Our Family: A Sonnet for the Solar System
A cloud of gas contracts into a disk.
It spins and swirls, ignites and makes a star.
Now dust and gas both smash and crash, they whisk,
Collide and stick, the bits twirl near and far.
Some huge, they form eight planets smooth and round.
Now we look up amazed when day is done –
What’s there to see? What’s to be found?
We’re awed by things that circle ‘round our sun.
We marvel, study, watch and find much more,
As ast’roids, planets, comets, rocks and rings –
All move, like Earth, around the sun, our core.
A swirling sky of countless moving things!
A family made of many complex parts,
Our solar system’s great adventure starts.
A Planet is a Poem is an eye-poppingly unique picture book with ambitious goals: to introduce young readers to the solar system AND to different poetic forms at the same time. Author Amanda West Lewis profiles 14 different features of our solar system, from the Sun to the distant icy asteroid Arrokoth. In doing so, she uses 14 different poetic forms, each one creatively connected to the feature it is describing. This is a highly innovative way for children to learn about the solar system, poetic forms, and the ways that form and content can intersect in beautiful and unexpected ways.
The format of the book reflects its approach. Each poem is presented on a double-page spread illustrated by Oliver Averill’s brilliantly coloured artwork. The page containing the poem folds out to reveal a further double-page spread: one page containing factual information about the planet, star, moon, or asteroid. The facing page explains the poetic form and the reason why it was chosen. For example, the Sun is featured in the ode “O Sol! O Helios!”: “O Sol! O Helios! Our sun!/Shining for billions of years./Your core is a constant and fiery explosion/That never disappears.” The inner panel explains that an ode is a poem that praises something, and, since life on earth depends on the sun, what could be more worthy of a poem of praise? “O Sol! Our Star! This fact is true,/Unique to us, no question:/There’s life on Earth because of you./This ode’s for you, O Sun!”
The planets are presented in order, from tiny Mercury (whose poem is written in rhyming beats and short lines, only two beats per line, to create a small, fast beat that reflects Mercury’s speed as it whizzes around the sun) onwards. Venus is described in a villanelle, Earth is given a ballad, Mars a dramatic monologue, Jupiter a concrete poem, and so on.
The book concludes with a hip-hop poem for future astronomers, encouraging them to continue learning about the solar system: “Now it’s your turn to learn and discover/Look for new facts you can uncover/Find more things in outer space/See more truths you cannot erase.” The end pages include a glossary of space terms, a list of further resources, and a challenge to readers to write their own poem about Planet X.
A Planet is a Poem is a beautiful and creative exploration of the solar system and of poetry, a wonderful way to introduce young readers – simultaneously – to both.
Dr. Vivian Howard is a professor in the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.