cover image 8 Spinning Planets

8 Spinning Planets

Brian James, illus. by Russell Benfanti, Scholastic/Cartwheel, $9.99 (16p) ISBN 978-0-545-23517-4

Readers can visit the eight planets of the solar system in this rhyming counting tour. The rounded, plastic planets—from Mercury to Neptune—poke through cardboard pages (but don't actually spin), disappearing as the book moves further out. The rhymes offer a serviceable introduction to each planet ("Mars has mountain ranges that rise up very high./ It has not one but two moons that orbit in its sky"). The futuristic digital art is complemented by photographs of the planets' surfaces—except for Pluto, "which is too small to be one." Ages 1–3. (Sept.)