A Universe Big & Small: A Story About Carl Sagan
by James Yang; illus. by the author
Primary    Viking    40 pp.
7/25    9780593693070    $19.99

A young Carl Sagan peers out his window looking at the night sky. He “loved to ask questions” and has many to ponder. What if he were as small as an atom—the “smallest thing in the universe”—and could watch them come together as cells? He could see how all living things are connected. And what if he were big enough to be among the stars? He envisions a spaceship named Imagination, which takes him from Venus’s “boiling atmosphere” to Saturn’s rings and even beyond the solar system to find a nebula, a galaxy, and a broader view of the never-ending universe. Wondering about life beyond our planet, Carl leaves a pictorial message on a satellite before returning home to his own “tiny blue dot.” Stylized digital illustrations reminiscent of mid-century pop art convey Carl’s fantastical space trip. The simple, bright-eyed narrative prioritizes Sagan’s spirit of curiosity over biographical information; Yang’s author’s note aptly calls this text one of his “imagined stories of real people” (see also A Boy Named Isamu, rev. 9/21) and cites the ideas present in the book that came from Sagan himself. A whimsical tale that shares the pleasure of curiosity.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.