Bright Sky, Starry City

What a night. A rare conjunction of Saturn and Mars will allow young Phoebe to see both at the same time if (and this is a big if) the sky isn’t cloudy and the lights of the city don’t create too much pollution to obscure them. In anticipation of the event, Phoebe’s dad sets up telescopes outside his shop, aptly named Night Sky, and she draws the planets in chalk on the sidewalk. As night falls and the lights come on, Phoebe and her dad can barely make out even the brightest of stars. And then a sudden rainstorm forces the two inside the shop and washes away her drawings and her dreams. But Phoebe insists they stay until storm’s end. They do, the clouds blow away, and a (convenient) citywide blackout makes it possible for the two of them to see “stars in the hundreds, some in constellations that Phoebe had only ever seen in pictures.” Sicuro captures the wonder of “how deep the night was and how endless” through a series of circular drawings and collages on a dark navy background as Krishnaswami’s near-breathless prose recounts first one and then another of the sights now visible. An informal but thorough back-matter explanation of the planets, moons, planetary rings and conjunctions, telescopes, and light pollution refers to incidents in the story and grounds the information in now-familiar experiences. betty carter

A rare conjunction of Saturn and Mars will make both visible at the same time--if they're not obscured by clouds and light pollution. The clouds blow away, and thanks to a citywide blackout, Phoebe and her dad can see "stars in the hundreds." Circular drawings and collages capture the wonder; near-breathless prose recounts the sights. "More About Our Night Sky" appended. Bib., glos.