Some picture books work well without context. Where the Wild Things Are is a classic example. Small in the City is a contemporary example.
Taylor Woolley’s picture book Earth Rover is more appealing with a little context, and may be more appealing now than when it came out in 2025.
The premise of the story is nicely simple: a dog wants to be the rover for the next U.S. space mission. It proposes itself as a prime candidate, does some earth-side training, and dreams some daydreams about what it would be like on the moon.
Woolly’s illustrates are cartoonish, friendly, and welcoming: they work well for both the dog on earth pages and the (hypothetical) dog in space pages. So why do I say this is more appealing now and with more context?
Artemis II.
The book mentions Artemis II, but there’s so much going on in the world that comparatively little attention was paid to Artemis in 2025–and it wasn’t until after mission specialist Christina Koch came home from space to a dog who was going crazy to see her that most people connected Artemis and dogs.
The dog in the book doesn’t get chosen, but is clearly charming (and the book contains some good educational material on space and lunar exploration at the end). The only thing I’d change about this book is that it lets the dog get away with some impossibilities, like sniffing things on the moon. But that’s me, betraying my science fiction roots.
