A Trip Around the Sun

Gr 1-4–“Change is hard.” So observes Comet after watching a caterpillar turn into a moth. Haylee, a young white girl, and her pal, an anthropomorphic comet, discuss the nature of change across the book’s three stories. In the other stories, they come across a litter of stray kittens and compare the life cycles of different plants and animals. Haylee and Comet’s friendship serves as a welcome vehicle for exploring different forms of internal and external change and growth. Studying change in nature does not eliminate Comet’s worries and uncertainty over their own future. Nonetheless, the friends’ conversations, play, and discoveries lead them to gratitude for each other’s presence. They make peace with how the facts of life can only determine so much about a person—personality traits and individual choices play a role, too. Marcero’s deeply saturated, loose-lined, rich artwork is as gentle and calm as an afternoon enjoying snow cones.