Atmospheric Poetry: New STEM picture book Up, Up High joins Deep, Deep Down

Lydia Lukidis’s newest STEM picture book, the lyrical Up, Up, High: The Secret Poetry of Earth’s Atmosphere, makes a wonderful companion to Deep, Deep Down: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench, which came out in 2023. Both are marvelous additions to your family’s collection—and to the collections of classroom, school, and public libraries.

But these are not just reference books to read once and return. Both books offer readers multiple ways to enjoy and learn from the journey up through the atmosphere and down through the ocean’s depths. This versatility makes the books appeal to multiple readers and stand up to multiple readings.

Each book provides:

• a story in poem form,
• a visual journey in stunning illustrations, and
• nonfiction science information.

Together, these add up to a wonderful blend of two approaches to nonfiction, expository literature and traditional nonfiction, [1] that can be enjoyed through multiple pathways. I read through the poetic stories first, then went back and read the boxed information and the back matter, enjoying the pictures on both journeys. You and your young reader could also choose to read everything on each two-page spread before moving on, taking time to discuss the pictures and how they relate to the text. Or start with the information-dense back matter. Many journeys are possible, which will engage different readers and the same reader at different times.

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[1] Five Kinds of Nonfiction, based on work by Melissa Stewart

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Keep reading for two sample spreads and detailed reviews of the story, illustrations, and informational text. But if you only read this far, just remember—both Up, Up High and Deep, Deep Down are worth looking into, again and again!

Story

Up, Up High begins at Earth’s surface, in an ordinary setting of grass, trees, a building, and a blue sky with puffy clouds. The reader is invited to look up and wonder, “Where does the sky end and space begin?” An imaginary trip on a spacecraft begins:

As you fly
up,
up,
up,
the spacecraft pierces
cotton-candy clouds

In the story section, even the science is shared in poetry:

The air pressure drops,
and oxygen levels
plummet
     down,
         down,
               down.

A bone-chilling cold
blasts through the air.

The upward journey continues with spare, colorful word choices to convey both facts and wonder. Through storms, past weather balloons, space jumpers, meteors, and the International Space Station, the spacecraft continues until it reaches the limits of Earth’s atmosphere, before returning to the surface. 

To find out,
squeeze inside the submersible and
plunge,
       plunge,
            plunge.

The reader follows the submersible on its journey down, down, down, into the depths of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth. Along the way, they meet a startling number of organisms that somehow survive in this cold, dark place where:

. . . the water pressure,
like a thick, heavy blanket with a thousand hands,
presses down,
                         down,
                                 down.

Both journeys end with a SPLASH – literally – as the capsule returns from space, supported by parachutes, and as the submersible surfaces near the research vessel it launched from. Up, Up High then returns to the place of grass and trees, but at night, where an unnamed character gazes up at the stars, wondering.

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Illustrations

Up, Up High is illustrated by Katie Rewse. Illustrating the atmosphere means portraying both solid objects (mountains, spacecraft, satellites) and less tangible phenomena (sunlight, clouds, auroras, sprites) equally well. And, illustrating a picture book means telling a story. That’s a lot to achieve, and the resulting artwork shows that the illustrator met this challenge. The illustrations show drama as well as science, with the imaginary rocket flying through thunderstorms, meteor showers, and past a friendly astronaut repairing a spacecraft. [1] If the reader observes the background throughout the journey they may notice a gradual shift in color from the bright blue of a sunny day at Earth’s surface, through the darker blue of the dry upper atmosphere, to the darkness of space beyond.

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[1] Some artistic license is taken in Up, Up High, which I’m willing to grant. No one would launch a rocket during a thunderstorm or fly so close to another spacecraft that you can see an astronaut smile! But touches like these add to the appeal of the story.

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Deep, Deep Down is illustrated by Juan Calle. Juan’s background as a biologist and scientific illustrator shines in the gorgeous and scientifically accurate depictions of these ocean creatures and the inky darkness where they dwell. A phenomenal amount of research must have gone into illustrating each of these species. The color palette communicates what it must be like to glimpse life that never sees the light of day, as the headlight of the submersible flashes on it. The rattail appears annoyed; the snailfish, curious. There is poetry in the images, as much as in the text.

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Nonfiction Information

For readers who thrive on information, these books deliver. After the scene has been set and the journey begins, boxed text offers greater detail about the concepts featured in the story and illustrations. From weather balloons to satellites, mountain climbers to space jumpers (in Up, Up High), and so many, many creatures with wonderful names like sea cucumbers and xenophyophores (in Deep, Deep Down), these meaty informational nuggets satisfy even the most intense info cravings.

The back matter of both books provides even more information, including the classic full-page labeled diagrams of the ocean and atmosphere, full pages of single-spaced text with more written information, and glossaries. Up, Up High recommends books and websites for more information, while Deep, Deep Down has an additional page of text to answer the question, “Why Does the Mariana Trench Matter?”

Little things I love

• Alliteration! “The spacecraft shakes as it slices through a slew of storm clouds.” “Sink down, deeper and deeper. The water grows dimmer, darker, until the rays of sunlight… disappear.”
• Deep, Deep Down, in particular, doesn’t shy away from using big words to convey ideas: desolate, mesmerizing, translucent. But they’re used sparingly, not more than one per two-page spread, and most also appear in the glossary.
• The height of the atmosphere is positioned at the top of the page; the depth of the ocean is at the bottom. As someone who’s worked in book development for many years, I appreciate it when these little design decisions support the overall theme of the story.

Two things even I didn’t know. . .

. . . and I know a LOT about science!

• Crinoids still live in the ocean! I’d previously known crinoids only as fossils.
• Sprites are fleeting! I knew about sprites in the atmosphere, but not that they’re so very hard to see.

Get one. Get both!

With both books, young readers could research questions such as, Which journey was longer—to outer space, or to the depth of the Mariana Trench? Which journey showed more living things? Which showed more machines? Can you think of a reason for that difference? The answers are there if you compare.