The Fire of Stars

Kirsten W. Larson, Katherine Roy (illustrator)

This is a very clever picture book (48 pages) with two parallel stories beautifully interwoven. One is that of the birth of a star, written in poetic, sparse language. The other is the inspirational biography of astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne who, in 1925, discovered what stars are made of. With the two stories, plus a few pages at the end that explain the birth of a star in more scientific terms, this is an excellent book for siblings of different ages.

Ages 3-8