SLIS 5420 - Module 12 - Starry Messenger

Bibliography

Sís, P. (1996). Starry messenger : A book depicting the life of a famous scientist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physicist, galileo galilei (1st ed.). New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Summary

The book Starry Messenger is a biography about Galileo Galilei written as a picture book for young readers. The book provides a general overview of Galileo’s life from birth to death and the major accomplishments and hardships that he dealt with over the years. The biography includes excerpts from different documents from the time including publications by Galileo as well as the verdict for his case from the Catholic Church. The biography is well written and simple, though the accompanying text can be difficult to read at times due to its handwritten appearance. What makes this book truly wonderful are the illustrations that accompany the text. While the text tells the story, the illustrations give a feel of Italy when Galileo was alive. The illustrations show the various scenes of Galileo’s life and the accomplishments that he earned.

Impressions

The book was good, but had a few weaknesses that made it difficult to think about a child reading it. The quotes from the original documents, while artfully done, made the text very difficult to read and for the age group that would be reading picture books, may be too difficult for them to understand what was written. The illustrations were amazing and really made the book wonderful to look at. The amount of detail that each illustration has is simply amazing and makes the book easy to follow along as well as giving a feast to the eyes.

Reviews

“Less a picture-book biography than is Leonard Everett Fisher's Galileo, this book instead takes the essentials of Galileo's life and discoveries to frame a rich galaxy of paintings that recall both the scientist's times and the persistence of wonder. Captions ("Night after night, he gazed through his telescope and wrote down everything he observed") and quotes from Galileo's writing ("The moon is not robed in a smooth and polished surface but is in fact rough and uneven") border and embellish the large pages, while the paintings enliven a Renaissance tone with Sis's own peculiar style of iconography: inset portraits and vignettes, stamps and medallions, intricate borders. Much of the text is printed in script and, when the lines whimsically spiral and swoop, is not always easy to read. The best pictures are both sweet and surreal, like the one showing baby Galileo, "born with stars in his eyes," tucked in amidst a host of babies less blessed; or a phantasmagorical map of Europe. Endpapers take the story from the past to the present, the opening spread showing a cityscape of Galileo searching the Florentine skies, the closing one revealing a contemporary skygazer looking at the New York City night. Like Galileo, you should look and look carefully, for there is much to see.”

R., S. (1997). Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei. Horn Book Magazine, 73(1), 79-80.

“Author and illustrator Peter Sis has created a children's book about the great Italian astronomer Galileo. Written in fairy-tale-like language, the book is easily understandable to children ages 6 and up. The book discusses Galileo's life and times, his trial, and how his ideas and discoveries withstood the test of time. Paintings by the author illustrate this book.”

Dvorak, J. (1997). Starry Messenger. Astronomy, 25(1), 103.

Library Use

The book would be a great introduction for children who are learning about science and the stars. Astronomy owes a lot to the research that Galileo did and the inventions he made, so having an inquisitive youth learn more about him would give them greater appreciation of his contributions.