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Look Up!


Look Up!: Henrietta Leavitt, Pioneering Woman Astronomer
Written by Robert Burleigh
Illustrated by Raul Colon
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2013. Picture book biography.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born in a time where women were not allowed to explore their ambitions, but she wouldn't accept these limitations. Burleigh writes, "Sometimes she felt the stars were trying to speak, to tell her what they knew." Henrietta had an extraordinary mind for science, and an unending curiosity about the stars. Not only did she study astronomy and work at a university observatory, she went on to discover, chart, and publish new star findings. Burleigh succeeds in writing yet another accessible, inspiring picture book biography. Colon uses nice colors that lend a dreamy quality to the night skies. The afterword has quotes about stars, more information about Henrietta Leavitt, an astronomy glossary, and further reading recommendations.

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