GALAXY MAPPER

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.