Robert Burleigh is the award-winning author of many books for
children, including The Adventures of Mark Twain by
Huckleberry Finn, illustrated by Barry Blitt; Night Flight,
illustrated by Wendell Minor; Black Whiteness, illustrated by
Walter Lyon Krudop; and Sylvia’s Bookshop, illustrated by Katy
Wu. His many other books include Hoops; Stealing Home;
and Clang! Clang! Beep! Beep! He lives in Michigan.
Raúl Colón has illustrated several highly acclaimed picture
books including the New York
Times bestselling Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank
McCourt and Susanna Reich’s José! Born to Dance, which
received a starred review in Booklist. Mr. Colón lived in
Puerto Rico as a young boy and now resides in New City, New York,
with his family.
Burleigh (George Bellows: Painter with a Punch!) investigates a
woman astronomer who made a significant discovery in the 1900s when
most women in her field “were human ‘computers.’ Their job was to
record. And measure. And calculate. The women were expected to
‘work, not think.’ ” Henrietta Leavitt didn’t comply. Working at
the Harvard College Observatory, she closely observed photographs
of stars and uncovered a way to measure their true brightness,
paving the way for others to measure even greater distances to the
stars. Burleigh’s narrative is simultaneously succinct,
descriptive, and appealing: “When she closed her eyes, she could
still see the star dots, dancing across the inside of her eyelids.”
Working in his familiar warm, glowing style, Colón (Annie and
Helen) uses colored pencils and watercolors to create
feathery-textured illustrations. Some images of Leavitt at work are
rendered in muted beiges and greens, which make the night sky
scenes shine all the brighter with their vivid royal blues and
brilliant points of white light. An afterword about Leavitt and her
discovery, glossary, bibliography, and other resources round out
this attractive picture-book biography. Ages 4–8.
*Publishers Weekly*
Burleigh introduces Henrietta Leavitt, a nineteenth-century woman
determined to study astronomy at a time when “almost all astronomy
teachers and students were men.” Although she graduated from
college and secured a job in an observatory, Leavitt was confined
to working with a group of other women doing calculations of star
positions in photographs taken by male colleagues. Careful
observations, however, led Leavitt to discover minute changes in
the apparent brightness of certain stars over time, which in turn
led to methods of determining how far a star is from Earth. This is
a useful overview of a lesser-known scientific contributor, and
Burleigh as usual writes with smooth clarity. ... A collection of
end matter includes quotes about the stars, brief notes about
Leavitt’s life and discoveries and about other early female
astronomers, a glossary, and a compact list of websites and titles
for more exploration.
*Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books*
When Henrietta Leavitt graduated from Radcliffe College in 1892,
women were not seen as potential
scientists. Still, she accepted a rather tedious job measuring the
positions and sizes of stars in images
photographed using the Harvard College Observatory telescope.
Besides measuring and note-taking, she
analyzed the records on certain stars that appeared to blink on and
off. Her discovery that the time between
blinks indicated both the star’s brightness and its distance from
Earth led to the realization that the
universe was much larger than previously thought. Focusing on the
life of the mind, the text is
contemplative and the illustrations are understated. In childhood,
Leavitt is shown gazing at the night sky;
as an adult, her most active endeavor is a sedate walk. Still, the
writing celebrates her achievement, and the
lovely artwork, set outdoors at night or indoors by day, includes
yellow, tan, and white elements that are
luminous within the dimly lit scenes. A worthy picture book with
informative back matter that will help
children understand Leavitt’s challenging times as well as her
achievement.
*Booklist*
BURLEIGH, Robert. Look Up!: The Story of the First Woman
Astronomer. illus. by Raúl Colón. 32p. bibliog. further reading.
glossary. websites. S & S/Paula Wiseman Bks. Feb. 2013. Tr $16.99.
ISBN 978-1-4169-5819-2; ebook $12.99. ISBN 978-1-4424-81107.
Gr 2-4–Scientific biographers face an unenviable challenge: How
does one convey the excitement and impact of an individual’s
discovery when all but a tiny minority of the audience know nothing
about the subject’s field of study? In writing about Henrietta
Leavitt, a pioneering female astronomer whose contributions
revolutionized methods for measuring large distances in space,
Burleigh approaches the problem with exclamation points. He drops
in on Leavitt from inquisitive youth to “human computer”
calculating data in a male-dominated lab and takes several
carefully worded pages to outline the basics of her remarkable
discovery. His success in delivering the science with clarity and
brevity deserves admiration. But barring prior interest in the
night sky, readers may find the punctuation–and sporadic
third-person questions–attempts to manufacture passion and
curiosity not entirely engendered by a narrative that reveals
little about the subject beyond her most influential work. The
textures and geometric composition of Colón’s distinctive colored
pencil and watercolor illustrations radiate with a diverse palette
that encompasses warm, neutral interiors and fresh, vivid celestial
views. The full-page scenes and star-filled spots, though awkwardly
dispersed throughout the text, evoke the thrilling mystery and
beauty of astronomy. Back matter includes an afterword that fills
in biographical details, such as dates and places, not mentioned in
the main text.–Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Library, NY
*School Library Journal*
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