Your Place in the Universe
By Jason Chin
Illustrated by Jason Chin
“In the vast cosmic web, in the Milky Way, in the solar system, there is a small blue planet called Earth.”
Your Place in the Universe is a book about perspective and meaning. Jason Chin beautifully explains and illustrates the scale of our universe by moving from the reader to Mount Everest to the Moon and all the way out to the entire observable universe. Along the way he gives facts about units of measurement, the points of reference for the size of the universe, and their relationship with one another. The book ends with a return to the reader and a commitment to the value of the Earth, as “it’s the only planet we know of with kids who can look up and imagine… their place in the universe.” Your Place in the Universe is a list of facts and illustrations in which the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The lack of narrative allows readers to come to their own conclusions, while the illustrations keep the reader engaged.
As a book about place and scale, Your Place in the Universe opens up conversations about meaning, anthropocentrism, deep space/time, and the value of the Earth. Your Place in the Universe challenges anthropocentric, or human-centered, perspectives through a depiction of the cosmic web, demonstrating that the Earth is not anywhere near the center of the universe, or even one of the busy parts. Chin’s illustrations of our galaxy label the Earth but do not even show it due to its relatively small size, demonstrating that we are not the biggest, most important thing out there. The illustrations and facts along the way do a wonderful job of expressing the difficult-to-grasp scale of deep space and time. However, amidst the doubt that deep space and time can bring, Chin pulls back to show how the place of the Earth in the universe can inspire meaning despite its relatively small size and non-central location. Specifically, Chin addresses that the Earth is a Goldilocks Planet, and that the incredible breadth of the universe makes the Earth more, not less, significant. Your Place in the Universe inspires a sense of awe regarding the universe, and a sense of purpose in our place. While it is not directly about the climate crisis, Your Place in the Universe offers a vast, decentralized way to think about the universe which is essential to climate literacy.
©2025 ClimateLit (Sean Haase Oliva)
Publisher: Holiday House, Neal Porter Books, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-5245-3
Pages: 36
Format: Nonfiction, Picturebooks
Science Standards: 4-ESS1-1, 4-ESS3-1, 4-ESS3-2, 5-ESS1-1
Topics: Anthropocentrism, Climate Literacy, Deep Space, Deep Time, Goldilocks Planet, Wonder