The Stardust Mystery illustrated book is a companion to the MissionKT and Building the Universe video games, the STARDUST MYSTERY YouTube channel and the StardustMystery.com/kids/ web page. It follows the lives of cousins Lizzy, Milo, VC, and Neddy as they unravel the Stardust Mystery. Their adventures take them across time during the evolution of the Universe and the history of Planet Earth in the Cosmic Egg time, space and size-change travel ship. They must figure out how everyone alive is made of Stardust that was once in the body of Albert Einstein and the Last T-Rex. They must find out what Stardust is, and how, when, and where it was created.
As the Cosmic Kids team, the cousins enter The Science and The Future Contest, held by the mysterious Dr. Q. The winners will be taken on a trip around the moon! What could be a better gift for the grandfather they love, a former NASA astronaut?
Along the way, they visit Einstein, dinosaurs, and even the Big Bang. To win, they’ll have to use their brains to answer the many science questions, but they’ll also have to use their hearts to come together to solve the problems of family.
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MY TAKE
Science loving kids and teachers will enjoy this wide encompassing effort. Even those who aren’t will find the exploratory nature and the variety of support materials to their liking. There is much to learn and the fun aspect of the book bring the topics to life in a memorable way.
Told in rotating viewpoints by a group of young cousins, they each bring their own strengths. Readers are alongside throughout the 46 chapters and will be motivated to research even more by going to the Stardust Mystery Kid page, Main Page, or YouTube Channel. Here’s a sample video introducing the book:
There are so many resources (even video games) that the authors made a handy PDF page listing every resource. Teachers and students alike will love the interactive nature of the task in discovering just where did stardust originate and how is it made our world today. Grandpa is a big part of the pursuit and he adds a nice set of resources in the back pages of the book.
THE STARDUST MYSTERY is a unique way to learn about science. Perfect for grades 5 and up, even us more seasoned adults will be learning and saying more than once, “I didn’t know that!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Solomon is a scientist, author and entrepreneur who is devoted to passing on his love for the many wonderful science stories to the younger generation through the media they like best. He believes that integrating science concepts into exciting stories is the best way for children to learn. The birth of his twelfth grandchild was the inspiration for The STARDUST MYSTERY book. The child characters in the story explore the creation of their atoms through time and space travel adventures in the Beamer Virtual World. Solomon was asked by his young book reviewers to create a virtual world that they could use. This inspired a National Science Foundation project to create video games and the Stardust Mystery YouTube channel for science videos to accompany the book. The characters in the story, games and videos were inspired by his grandchildren.
He lives in Connecticut with his wife Sally Moshein Solomon. Sally and two of their children, Jeff Solomon, and Joanne Solomon, took part in inspiring and creating the book. Solomon is working on a second book called The Race to the Big Bang.
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Always in the Middle... 
This sounds like a thrilling read! I’ve always believed we are made of stardust. This is a very unusual way to learn about science — but what fun!