I have been pursuing nuclear and particle physics as a career for nearly half a century, mostly in Western countries and Japan. As a professor of physics and engineering physics, I always strive to bring conceptual clarity to what I teach for application-oriented and abstract physics, even when I cannot bring the same level of connection to physical reality in my research. I am deeply concerned that physicists have gone astray in their mathematical quest to develop a glamorous picture of the building blocks of matter and the basic interactions among them. This book is an outgrowth of my search to understand the limits of human knowledge to unravel nature’s mysteries.
This book by a life-long astronomer is a nice, successful attempt to humanize natural philosophers since classical times. It is rare that we find books that dig deeper into the personal struggles, false starts, and wrong conclusions of philosophers (scientists) as they strive at their research incessantly. A recommended read to all astronomy educators and those youth aspiring to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
Societies tend to portray high achievers of the past, whether in science, art, or otherwise, as special beings who were infallible genii of their times and that today’s generations may not reach those heights. To me, this is a very negative approach that discourages the youth from striving for higher goals. Prof. Hirshfeld, a career astronomer, does an excellent job of presenting the human faces of the giants of the past.
In the dramatic tradition of the best selling "Longitude", this book charts the historical path of observational astronomy's most daunting challenge: measuring the distance to a star. The greatest scientific minds applied themselves in vain to the problem across the millennia, beginning with the ancient Greeks. Not until the 19th century would three astronomers, armed with the best telescopes of the age, race to conquer this astronomical Everest, their contest ending in a virtual dead heat. Against a backdrop filled with kidnappings, dramatic rescue, swordplay, madness, and bitter rivalry, the author brings to life the heroes of this story. A…
As a geologist, I met and shared meals – occasionally under the stars – with individuals with strikingly different backgrounds. In time I realized that, whatever their DNA, they all shared certain beliefs, that the happy dead eventually go upward, for example, even if they start by going down or out to the horizon. Eventually, I concluded that the entire human adventure began in a single moment the day one of our forebears asked another "What shall we do about death?" and was understood. Humans have a single genetic heritage; we also have a single cultural heritage.
Allen (1838-1906) was described as a "walking encyclopedia" by people who knew him. It was only after acquiring a reprint of his great book, a decade before the internet, that my own research into ancient cosmology took off. Star Names was first published in 1899 and as Wikipedia notes "there is no direct modern equivalent." As is the case with the internet, large sections can also be plucked out and read for pleasure.
Here is an unusual book for anyone who appreciates the beauty and wonder of the stars. Solidly based upon years of thorough research into astronomical writings and observations of the ancient Chinese, Arabic, Euphrates, Hellenic, and Roman civilizations, it is an informative, non-technical excursion into the vast heritage of folklore and history associated with the heavenly bodies. From his studies of the writings of scores of ancient astronomers, the author has come up with a fascinating history of the names various cultures have given the constellations, the literary and folkloristic uses that have been made of the stars through the…
I identify as an author, creator, and activist and when I write, I write calling forth the world that our Ancestors dreamed of and deserved and our future generations need. We often forget the power we have as individuals and how that power is amplified in community. I write towards that power being recognized in kids and for them to see how any change they step into can be nurtured and expanded by others. Stepping into Ancestral Veneration, I realize that I never write alone. My Ancestors are always present in my writing, co-creating towards building a sustainable, regenerative, just, decolonized, Indigenized, and liberated world.
Kaz Windness, the author-illustrator wrote Bitsy for herself and anyone who is neurodivergent and experiencing something for the first time.
Bitsy is nervous about starting school and her family makes space for her to practice and prepare for her first night at school. She begins school and tries to go about the day in ways that feel natural to her but is quickly judged by others, being expected to do things the way her classmates do things.
While Bitsy had a rough first day, she is reminded that she is a star by being herself. She steps into her power and heads into her second day of school to help others do the same. My biological niece from my maternal-side was just recently diagnosed with autism. I was happy to be able to add this book to her bookshelf as she is navigating the world.
A little bat struggles to fit in only to learn to celebrate differences in this heartfelt picture book from an autistic perspective about starting school, making friends, and seeing what makes each person special.
Bitsy is a little bat with big star dreams of making friends at her new school. But when she arrives, Bitsy doesn't feel like she fits in. The other kids sit on their chairs, but sitting upright makes Bitsy dizzy. The other kids paint with their fingers, but Bitsy would rather use her toes. Everyone tells Bitsy she's doing things wrong-wrong-wrong, so she tries harder...and ends…
I am passionate about writing books for children that create windows to the world, teaching empathy. Children that are empathic grow up to be kind and compassionate adults. I write because I long for a world that is more accepting and compassionate.
Sulwe is a little girl with skin the ‘color of midnight’. But she just wants to be like her mother and sister, who are lighter skinned. This is an emotional read with stunning illustrations that teaches us to love ourselves just as we were made and embrace our own unique beauty.
4
authors picked
Sulwe
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
4,
5,
6, and
7.
What is this book about?
From Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colourism, self-esteem and learning that true beauty comes from within.
Sulwe's skin is the colour of midnight. She's darker than everyone in her family, and everyone at school.
All she wants is to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister.
Then a magical journey through the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything.
In this stunning debut picture book, Lupita Nyong'o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.
I am an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. I use telescopes on Earth and in space to study supernovae (the explosions of stars) and tidal disruption events (bright flares caused by supermassive black holes ripping apart nearby stars). I have wanted to be a scientist since second grade, and some of the books on this list have helped kindle my passion for physics and astronomy. I hope that my own popular science books will do the same for the next generation of astronomers.
I leafed through a copy of this book in my local library and immediately bought a copy to read with my daughters. Suitable for kindergarten and older children learning to read, it describes how several cultures conceptualized the night sky and the stories they told about the patterns they saw in the stars.
I loved how it didn’t just stick to ancient Greece but also introduced readers to African stories of the Milky Way, the astronomies of ancient Egypt and China, modern telescopes, and even how certain animals use the stars for navigation. The text is sliced into short, easy-to-read paragraphs, and the paintings are gorgeous.
What stories, mysteries and secrets can you find in the stars?
A wonderful illustrated tour of the night sky for children aged 5+ years. Lara Hawthorne's beautiful illustrations take the reader on one of the most fascinating journeys that humankind has ever made and one that is common to us all.
From ancient Egyptians building the pyramids, to early Polynesian sailors criss-crossing the Pacific Ocean, and astronauts travelling into space, the night sky has guided and inspired people across the world, and throughout time.
Now it's your turn to look to the skies and discover the mysteries they hide.
I am a naturalist, astronomer, space artist, and a Harvard world lecturer living in the Rocky Mountains outside of Aspen. So far, I’ve written and illustrated twelve kid’s astronomy books for National Geographic and Penguin Random House. I directed the Science Information Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge Massachusetts for fourteen years then left in 2015 to join NASA’s New Horizons Mission Team becoming one of the first humans to see the planet Pluto up close and personal. I am also a Grammy nominated songwriter/musician, astrophotographer, telescope maker who enjoys scuba diving at night and occasionally has been known to parachute out of perfectly operating aircraft.
The stars have captivated hunter-gatherers, artists and astrologers, sages and scientists, romantics, and civilizations since the beginning of human time.
In this book we encounter the twenty-one brightest stars visible from earth and dig into their remarkable secrets. Did you know some giant stars spin so fast they flatten out like eggs? There are stars that pulse back and forth like beating hearts? And some stars are cosmic interlopers passing through our Milky Way galaxy on their way back into the void of forever space. This is my go-to book when I want to refresh my imagination with wondrous facts about the stars blazing overhead. It should be within handy reach of every star-struck observer, camper, or poet.
Fred Schaaf is one of the most experienced astronomical observers of our time. For more than two decades, his view of the sky-what will be visible, when it will be visible, and what it will look like-has encouraged tens of thousands of people to turn their eyes skyward. —David H. Levy, Science Editor, Parade magazine, discoverer of twenty-one comets, and author of Starry Night and Cosmic Discoveries
""Fred Schaaf is a poet of the stars. He brings the sky into people's lives in a way that is compelling and his descriptions have all the impact of witnessing the stars on…
Realistic, contemporary fiction is my jam. I’m in love with the genre for many reasons, but the most significant is this: In life, we often find it difficult to reveal our struggles to others, for fear of being exposed, seen as weak, “crazy”, or incapable. However, in the magical world of contemporary fiction, we allow ourselves to relate without fear of judgment or shame and because how we relate is different for all of us, these raw, emotional stories are some of the most powerful ones to be told. Why? Because it is in these stories that we see ourselves, and in them, we find hope.
What would you do if you found yourself in a new relationship, pregnant, and with nowhere to turn?
Vikky Hall, the protagonist in this story, has chosen to cut herself off from the mother she feels couldn’t care less, and winds up living with her boyfriend’s family while raising their son. As a result of toxic relationships and manipulation which bring on depression and self-doubt, Vikky sees no way out. She leaves their home—and her toddler son—behind.
This is a magnificently crafted novel exploring relationships between parents and children, the insecurity and guilt that can often come with motherhood, found family, forgiveness, and new beginnings. I loved it for its realness in addressing hard topics and emotions, and most strikingly, for its heart.
Why would you walk away from the one person you can’t live without?
As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half-siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of twenty-one, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.
When Vicky meets William and falls pregnant in Greece that summer, it isn’t planned. But…
A fantastic look into the mythology of the seven sisters
all around the world.
Well-researched
and giving equal value to stories, reflections, and legends from a variety of
sources, Andrews writes in the vaguely amusing style of an academic lawyer who
is arguing a point.
As an indigenous
woman of the Kimberly herself, Andrews shares some of the fascinating,
location-dependent stories of the sisters across Australia and how they tie in
with astronomy and daily life.
But what
I really loved about this book was how Andrews wove together a
number of similar themes that become apparent regarding the seven sisters' mythologies
all over the world. One can’t help but
be inspired that the ancients knew more than we do now.
The seven sisters of the Pleiades are known throughout the world and appear again and again in stories from many cultures. Beginning with her grandmother's tale, Munya Andrews takes the reader to the stars, around and across the planet through Indigenous North America, Australia, Japan and the Pacific, and back through time to Ancient Egypt, India, Greece and South America. She explores the commonalities of legends to discover our common human origins. The Subaru from Japan share much with the young women depicted as birds in the stories from Greece and Indigenous Australia. The Pleiades have been the source of…
Picture books are so important. They’re for everyone, not just young children, and often the readers are adult. Writing one is similar to writing a poem while watching the story in my imagination like a film. Usually I know the illustrator and can write to their strengths. Sophy Williams has drawn TheWinter Dragon as an awesome creature who's also kind and protective. When I was seven, my teacher sent my stories to Enid Blyton who replied I must not be spoiled (shame!) and wouldn’t write once I was an adult. After making Dragons with children, I watched them bring their creature alive in their play. The Winter Dragon enlarges Rory’s imaginative world.
The night-time theme of wishing upon a star is dreamily presented in The Wish Gatherers, written by Karin Celestine, who also made and photographed the creature characters. A wishing star makes someone’s dream come true and is eventually collected by the Star Gatherer, then flown back up to the heavens by the beautiful Celestial Moths. Tamsin Rosewell painted the stunning backdrops of moonlight and starlight, and Joana Rodrigues created the combined images. Children will love the endearing creatures and adults will fall for this sumptuous picture book.
The year turns, harvest approaches, and the longer night skies fill with stars. And sometimes, just sometimes, maybe once in a thousand lifetimes, the star you see when you look up is a Wishing Star, one that can hear a wish and make a dream come true. But once its work is done, who is it that completes the cycle and returns it to the heavens?
One of a series of four seasonal stories based around British folklore. Includes notes on harvest traditions by Pamela Thom-Rowe.
I’m passionate about the theme of mystery/romance novels because they lend so much to the human condition and hit a soft spot, as I’ve liked them since I was a child. When a story is relatable—such as a genuine real-life situation having the potential to become one’s own, that’s where the intrigue kicks in, and I’m knocked into another world as I feel their emotions so poignantly. It’s the perfect escape. Unlike science fiction where reality must be suspended, a classic mystery story—especially ones with a touch of romance—are the ones that really suck me in and won’t let go until the last page is turned.
I loved this story about a protagonist who is living her worst nightmare, and we’re along for the unpredictable twists and turns of her life.
The story is everything you’d expect for a well-conceived psychological drama where true-to-life characters come alive and live the nightmare you’re glad isn’t your own. It held my attention and wouldn’t let go!
Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy.
Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother, growing up in foster care. But her husband Simon is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France – nothing is too good for his family.
Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia.…
