Once Upon a Star

As the sun goes down and the sky gets dark, out come the stars, thousands of little lanterns hanging in the sky. But where did they come from and how did they get there? In this beautiful picture book, poetry and non fiction come together to describe the Big Bang and the creation of our solar system.

Through narrative verse, the author uses simple but evocative language to summon the giant-ness of the universe and take the reader on a short but immersive journey among the stars and through time as the sun and then the earth itself come into being. It’s a lovely introduction to the idea of our world having once been very different, presenting an interesting sense of scale, and finishing with the concept that as all things come from the stars they are made of stardust – ourselves included.

Once Upon a Star is a great jumping-off point to explore the universe further and investigate more of the science and ideas briefly presented here, or as inspiration for art and creative projects, or even for readers to write their own poetry about the universe and the world around them.