Look Up!: Henrietta Leavitt, Pioneering Woman Astronomer

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