Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Stuff of Stars
    The Stuff of Stars
    The Stuff of Stars
    Audiobook6 minutes

    The Stuff of Stars

    Written by Marion Dane Bauer and Ekua Holmes

    Narrated by Christina Moore

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In an astonishing unfurling of our universe, Newbery Honor winner Marion Dane Bauer and Caldecott Honor winner Ekua Holmes celebrate the birth of every child. Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was . . . nothing. But then . . . BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 7, 2018
    ISBN9781980030188
    The Stuff of Stars
    Author

    Marion Dane Bauer

    Marion Dane Bauer has written more than one hundred children's books, including picture books, easy readers, early chapter books, and novels. She won a Newbery Honor for On My Honor, a middle grade coming-of-age story. She lives in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. www.mariondanebauer.com.

    More audiobooks from Marion Dane Bauer

    Related to The Stuff of Stars

    Related audiobooks

    Children's Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Moon River Melody

      Jul 1, 2020

      Moon River Melody
      3 min read

    • Article

      Huckleberry

      Feb 2, 2022

      Huckleberry
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hello!

      Nov 24, 2020

      Hello!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Happy & Grumpy Take a train

      May 8, 2020

      Happy & Grumpy Take a train
      1 min read

    • Article

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds

      Apr 30, 2020

      67 Ways To Celebrate Birds
      5 min read

    • Article

      Space Jam-packed

      Nov 14, 2021

      Space Jam-packed
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Christmas Day Kitten

      Nov 1, 2022

      The Christmas Day Kitten
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesdays

      Jan 1, 2022

      Tuesdays
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Can We Hear in Space?

      Jan 23, 2024

      On a daring flight in 1836 from London across the English Channel and beyond, the pioneering balloonist Charles Green and his companions found themselves flying at night over the city of Liège in Belgium, at that time one of Europe’s major industrial

      4 min read

    • Article

      We Are All Made Of Stars

      Oct 7, 2022

      We Are All Made Of Stars
      27 min read

    • Article

      Taking Flight

      Oct 12, 2021

      Taking Flight
      11 min read

    • Article

      Why Mars Is the Best Planet

      Jan 13, 2017

      Why Mars Is the Best Planet
      8 min read

    • Article

      Thirteen Ways of Looking at FIRE

      Apr 7, 2020

      Thirteen Ways of Looking at FIRE
      10 min read

    • Article

      Solar Flair

      Jun 27, 2019

      Solar Flair
      5 min read

    • Article

      Voyager

      Nov 27, 2023

      Voyager
      7 min read

    • Article

      Night Tripper

      Sep 6, 2019

      Night Tripper
      2 min read

    • Article

      Seek And Ye Shall Find

      Oct 19, 2022

      Seek And Ye Shall Find
      2 min read

    • Article

      At The End Of All Time

      Jan 31, 2020

      At The End Of All Time
      4 min read

    • Article

      Just Look Up

      Sep 10, 2023

      The cute little sky freckles (a.k.a stars) that we see in the night sky are actually larger than our sun (fun fact: the Sun is also a star). That’s why we can see them from sooo far away! Some are even larger than our entire solar system. No star tra

      2 min read

    • Article

      Solar Flair

      Jul 16, 2019

      Solar Flair
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Stuff of Stars

    4/5

    78 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      It is poetic book. The illustrations are what makes the book.
    • 5/5
      "In the dark, in the dark, in the deep, deep dark ... a speck floated ... invisible as thought, weighty as God." This book has simple and poetic text with beautiful full-age artwork exploring the birth of the universe, the formation of the planets and the solar system, the eventual evolution of life, and the birth of an individual child - the reader and/or listener. On a comfortable and intuitive level, this book pulls together our Genesis Creation stories and the Big Bang Theory.
    • 5/5
      A simple but poetic text exploring the birth of the universe, the formation of the planets and the solar system, the eventual evolution of life, and the birth of an individual child - the reader and/or listener, perhaps? - is paired with astonishingly beautiful artwork in The Stuff of Stars. Each two page spread features a few sentences from author Marion Dane Bauer, who won a Newbery Honor for her children's novel, On My Honor, as well as the hand-marbled paper and collage art of illustrator Ekua Holmes, who won a Caldecott Honor for her work on Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer. The result is that rarest of specimens: a picture-book which manages to explore an abstract concept successfully, and have both poetic and scientific significance...I found The Stuff of Stars both beautiful and poignant, and marveled at both the text and artwork. Bauer's wordcrafting here is top notch, and there were moments when I had to stop, and savor the poetry of her text. When she described that first speck of something, "invisible as thought, weighty as God," I paused to consider. Her description of stars catching fire, but having "no planets to attend" them, gave me a little thrill. Her conclusion, in which a child is born, made of stardust, put me so strongly in mind of the first day of my college astronomy class, in which our professor made that same statement - that we humans were indeed made of stardust, just like everything in our world - that I smiled with delight. Holmes' artwork is every bit as beautiful as the text - and what a difficult text it must have been to illustrate, with so many complicated and abstract ideas bound up in it! Somehow she managed to triumph though, creating collage artwork that perfectly captures the mystery and the majesty of the cosmos and of creation. I missed this one when it came out a few months ago, being in hospital and away from work, but am glad to have finally discovered it. It is definitely on my Caldecott possibilities list! Recommended to anyone who appreciates gorgeous picture-book art, or who is looking for children's books about the Big Bang, and the evolution of the cosmos.
    • 5/5
      The illustrations are glorious and the story is lovely.
    • 5/5
      I loved the art and the mental imagery created in this book.Teaching children the benefits of thinking that they are connected to everything is hopefully a way to greater empathy in this world.
    • 4/5
      What an interesting premise for the big bang theory's abstractness. The first page describes the dark "as weighty as God." BANG! The text tells the readers what was there and what wasn't... until "you" burst into the world. The illustrations are as abstract as the big bang theory it tells about. Beautiful and vibrant and glowing and stunning... the stuff of stars.
    • 3/5
      Neat book, not terribly unique. Nice illustrations. Quick read.
    • 5/5
      -received as a giveaway through librarything-this is a truly lovely book; beautiful pages with a simple, poetic text, perfect for reading aloud. I enjoyed this one enough that there will have to be some internal debate on whether I keep it or give it to my young niblings.
    • 4/5
      I liked this picture book. It's definitely written about a very abstract topic, so it may be challenging for children to understand the true content of the book. I do like the writing style, however. It seems like it would lend itself well to a read aloud. I also like the illustrations. This book is very engaging and fun to read. Thank you!
    • 4/5
      I've never encountered a picture book quite like The Stuff of Stars. The concept is nothing new--that all people in this world are made up of the same "star stuff"--but the artwork by Ekua Holmes is so unique and out of this world beautiful.
    • 5/5
      This absolutely gorgeous picture book follows the journey of a tiny speck through the big bang. The speck becomes stardust, and the stardust becomes planets, plants, animals, and eventually, YOU (or the baby/child you are reading this to). Bauer's text has a rhythmic cadence to it that lends itself to reading out loud, and Holmes' illustrations give a dreamlike atmosphere to the book. The marbled pictures are wonderful, although maybe a bit too abstract for younger children - but still provide good opportunities to talk about colors, shapes, and imagery. At first I thought this book was going to be similar to On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman, but while Tillman's book suggests that a child is the center of the universe, The Stuff of Stars instead teaches a child that they are one of many miraculous pieces of our infinite universe.Thank you to Candlewick Press and LibraryThing for the advanced copy of this book!* *This did not affect my review or rating.