Wish Upon A Star: The Science, Magic and Meaning of Stars
At first contact with this book, you are met with Tang’s soulfully explosive illustrations of stars complemented by a gorgeous textured hardcover with embossed and debossed text and designs, inviting your hand to trail over the shapes. It only gets better from there, as each page reveals a smorgasbord of stories brought to life in full colour, with cut-out like human figures against the softness of galaxies and magical sweeps of mythological reconstructions.
Space stations, gas giants, animals, and even rock stars are all treated with unique spreads that give each section their own distinct flavour while maintaining a consistency of style. Ard does a decent job of covering both the scientific and cultural history of stars across thousands of years and around the world in just 64 pages. From nuclear fusion and black holes, to navigators and researchers, to constellations and crocodiles in the sky, the book covers a vast amount of content concisely and vibrantly. In terms of representation there was a good balance of highlighting women in history, and discoveries across many specific cultures – though I was puzzled by the absence of any examples from South Asia, and would have liked the pop culture references to have expanded beyond only Western examples.
In addition to falling deeply in love with the artwork, I also learned new information about stars (I finally understand pulsars!). All in all a stunning book to own, to share, to marvel over and learn from, far beyond the age range indicated below.
