Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei

While Galileo angered the church at the time, the idea that the Earth goes around the Sun does not contradict the Bible, as the book seems to claim. Besides that seems like a good book. Not dry.

In this amusing and insightful book, Peter Sis has attracted more then one audience. Starry Messenger (a Caldecott Honor book) tells the story of Galileo Galilei and some of his accomplishments. The actual story is interesting, but the illustrations are amazing! His pictures are detailed andintricate, including every possible detail the mind can imagine. On the page introducing Galileo, perhaps fifty babies wrapped in blankets are pictured. On each blanket is their future occupation. You see a baker, a priest, a farmer, a knight, and a barrelmaker among many others. But Galileo is one that stands out. His blanket is dark blue and covered withwhite stars, foreshadowing his remarkable life. The Starry Messenger is a picture book, but don't let that label fool you. Most adults will find the facts about Galileo written in the margins interesting, and as I have, the pictures astounding. Words cannot do this book justice, its marvelous work of art!

This is my favorite picture book! It truly is perfect in every way! Reads aloud well and is great to read over and over again! I attached a magnifying glass with a ribbon to some copies in my class, so kids can study the intricate details in the magnificent illustrations and the (extra) tiny writing along the pages! PERFECT!

This children's book is a brief biography of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), which also uses some of Galileo's own words. It is appealing to both children and adults. The text is a celebration of a life devoted to science and of courage in the face of adversity. There are few books of biographies of scientists written for children and this book helps fill that gap. The book was a 1997 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

I bought this book for our church library because it represents the trial of Galileo before the Pope. I want students to understand that even if the church's top bosses say you are wrong, sometimes they are misinformed or ignorant of the true facts and you are still right. I want them to see that this is what constitutes courage--staying true to something you know is right. This type of idea plays out today in various denominations preventing women or gays from ordination as priests or ministers or even as members, in some churches' scorn of homosexual marriage. etc. If you know something is right or true for you, even if a church would kick you out, you must still stick to your beliefs and work for change. An especially nice thing about this book is that the main text is for 4-9 year olds, but there is additional cursive lettering which gives information to older kids capable of understanding it. My one complaint is that this more complex information is hard to read because it is in smalll cursive, and forms all kinds of patterns, even spirals. All in all though, a nice book.

Czecholsovakian author Peter Sis tells the story of Astronomer Galileo Galilei through a picture book filled with beautiful illustrations and celestial metaphor.The story moves quickly from the theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus to the birth of "a little boy . . . with stars in his eyes." The story goes on with traditional style text at the bottom of each page, and with additional quotes from Galileo's own notebook. The added bonus of strategically placed timelines showing other events of significance raises the story to a new level.The illustrations, in and of themselves, offer more than the eye can absorb in one sitting, and the fact that the author is also the illustrator is evident in the strength of the pictures tying perfectly to the text.At the story's end, readers are presented with one last timeline which gives four last dates of significance in Galileo's life: 1633-Galileo is sentenced for heresy; 1642-Galileo dies; 1989-the Galileo spacecraft is launched; 1992-Galileo is pardoned by the leaders of the Catholic Church, who admit that his theories of the earth rotating around the sun, instead of the other way around, is "probably" right.I used this book in my 7th grade world history class at the end of our unit on the Renaissance. It provided a reality for the students that sometimes is missed in history books, allowing the students to see what the Renaissance, Inquisition, and patronage was like for a real man; my 7 and 10 year old daughters enjoyed reading it too.I highly recommend this book to parents, teachers and students of all ages!