Starry Messenger

We printed out the planets and a quiz and put them in order. Then we mounted them on a board and wrote the names of the planets in glitter, and learned the “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas,” which refers to the order of the planets from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). Mummy had forgotten that one a long time ago. Since then, a particularly luscious friend of ours said she'd learnt the "north shore" version which goes thusly: "My Very Eager Maid Just Swept Up Nine Pins".

Then, we read some information about the Milky Way from Asimov's "Guide to Earth and Space" and "Starry Messenger—Galileo Galilei" by Peter Sis—a FABULOUS book, by my singlemost favourite children's book illustrator, and a sad story too. (Mummy got teary.) Fascinating that Shakespeare was born in the same year, and that Michelangelo died that year, too. Lots of interesting thinkers about in the world then—too bad some got tried with treason or worse.