LOOK UP!

LOOK UP!

Picture book
A young girl leans on a tree branch, gazing intently at the
night sky. In the background there's a house with lighted windows.
You know soon a mom or dad will summon her in for the night and
probably have to call pretty loudly. She is absorbed in the mysteries
of the universe. Very few cover pictures capture the spirit of a book
perfectly. Raul Colon's dreamy painting certainly does so for Robert
Burleigh's LOOK UP!, a biography of Henrietta Leavitt.
Leavitt grew up in a time when astronomy was considered a men's
field. Fortunately that didn't deter her. As a child she spent many
nights looking at the night sky, endeavoring to unlock the mysteries
of the stars. In college she was one of the few women in her
astronomy classes. When she graduated she got a low pay women's track
job at an observatory and a mandate to work, not think. In her own
time she thought and studied and came up with a break through
discovery that changed astronomy forever.
I love the collection of things people have said about the stars
from Babylonian mythology and Dante to John Lennon. My favorite is by
Harriet Tubman. "Always remember, you have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the
world." Those are powerful words.
This is a great book to get our young scientists and activists
and their parents looking upward, downward, inward, and outward to
discover their areas of passion.
On a personal note, I keep reminding myself of the quote. My way of
reaching for the stars is working to get into grad school to get my
degrees so I can be more useful in the fight to make education more
meaningful for all our children. Also it's my belief in my writing as
having the potential to touch people's hearts.
A great big shout out goes out to my friends who encourage me to
follow my dream instead of settling for something dreary and
conventional.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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