Sure to motivate readers to reach for the stars.
A young girl’s curiosity spurs her to map galaxies.
Summers anchors this biography of astrophysicist Hélène Courtois (b. 1970) with the following refrain: “Hélène observed. Hélène questioned. Hélène had ideas. And the moon was always waiting for her.” This use of repetition captures the spirit of an inquisitive young girl who hailed from a small French village and whose simple query— “What is beyond the moon?”—has led to a lifetime of study. Summers skillfully demonstrates how map reading inspired Hélène to eventually decode the skies. As a girl, she learned to read trail maps and explore nearby mountains. Later, she read road maps, which led her to observe the northern lights and other astral occurrences. She was often the only woman in the classroom while studying astrophysics at college. Gazing at the night sky through a professional telescope, Hélène fell in love with galaxies, “luminous lighthouses in the vast sea of dark matter.” She’d found her calling as a cosmographer, or one who maps galaxies. She assembled a team and along the way discovered a supercluster, which included the Milky Way. Though Summers gives readers a strong sense of her subject, some of the scientific language isn’t explained until the glossary, which may frustrate youngsters. James has exuberantly illustrated Courtois’ life by juxtaposing traditional classroom scenes and spot art of scientists at work, with vast night skies filled with twinkling stars and radiant blue and purple galaxies brushed with a golden glow.
Sure to motivate readers to reach for the stars. (timeline, profiles of other women astronomers, information on building a professional telescope, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 5-9)Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781536228977
Page Count: 48
Publisher: MIT Kids Press/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort.
A look at the unique ways that 11 globe-spanning animal species construct their homes.
Each creature garners two double-page spreads, which Cherrix enlivens with compelling and at-times jaw-dropping facts. The trapdoor spider constructs a hidden burrow door from spider silk. Sticky threads, fanning from the entrance, vibrate “like a silent doorbell” when walked upon by unwitting insect prey. Prairie dogs expertly dig communal burrows with designated chambers for “sleeping, eating, and pooping.” The largest recorded “town” occupied “25,000 miles and housed as many as 400 million prairie dogs!” Female ants are “industrious insects” who can remove more than a ton of dirt from their colony in a year. Cathedral termites use dirt and saliva to construct solar-cooled towers 30 feet high. Sasaki’s lively pictures borrow stylistically from the animal compendiums of mid-20th-century children’s lit; endpapers and display type elegantly suggest the blues of cyanotypes and architectural blueprints. Jarringly, the lead spread cheerfully extols the prowess of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef, “the world’s largest living structure,” while ignoring its accelerating, human-abetted destruction. Calamitously, the honeybee hive is incorrectly depicted as a paper-wasps’ nest, and the text falsely states that chewed beeswax “hardens into glue to shape the hive.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An arguable error of omission and definite errors of commission sink this otherwise attractive effort. (selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5625-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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