The Boy Whose Head Was Filled with Stars

A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids of 2021
A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Loveliest Children’s Book of 2021
A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2022, of Outstanding Merit
An Air & Space Magazine Best Children's Book of 2021
A EUREKA! Nonfiction Children's Book Honor Award Winner (California Reading Association)
Nominated for a 2023 Beehive Award for Children's Informational Books (Children's Literature Association of Utah)

★ "Marinov and Marcero pair up to create this visually striking biography of astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose insatiable curiosity led to groundbreaking discoveries about the cosmos in the early 20th century. Straightforward storytelling details young Hubble’s early obsession with the sky throughout his Missouri childhood and first career as a teacher and basketball coach, then his transition into astronomy, while mixed-media illustrations evoke the immenseness of the universe in compositions, including an impressive gatefold, that emphasize star-studded skies. Paneled vignettes pace the story, while diagrams and maps extend the narrative and illustrate astrophysical phenomena (e.g., a lunar eclipse). Back matter, including author and illustrator notes and a brief biography, further explains Hubble’s major contributions to astronomy—helping show the universe’s sprawling size and adding evidence to the theory that it’s expanding—concluding a book that should spark the imagination of young sky-watchers while introducing the scientist for whom a modern space telescope is named. " —STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly

★ "This biography of astronomer Edwin Hubble, once a boy looking up at the night sky, is a tribute to his life’s work and the joys of staying curious...After his father’s death, he followed his dreams, worked at Mount Wilson Observatory, studied galaxies, and proved both that the universe is much bigger than was previously thought—depicted in a striking double gatefold—and that it is expanding. The spreads featuring sprawling night skies dotted with stars are especially beguiling. And the book’s lovely pacing affords ample space to pay tribute to the sense of wonder that guided Hubble throughout his life, the repeated refrain being a set of three questions, printed in silver type, that haunted him: “How many stars are in the sky? How did the universe begin? Where did it come from?” The portion of the book about his discovery that the Andromeda Nebula is a separate galaxy gives credit where it’s due, paying tribute to Henrietta Swan Leavitt, an astronomer whose work came before Hubble’s. The story’s concluding direct address to readers—'Look….Look up at the stars'—is genuinely inspiring. Lively and wondrous—readers will be star-struck." —STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus

“The cyclical nature of many scientific phenomena provides writers with ready-made narrative structures, but a human life story can be tricky to handle in a picture book: What to include, what to leave out when you have so few words and pages? In The Boy Whose Head Was Filled With Stars, Isabelle Marinov and Deborah Marcero get it just right. Edwin Hubble is a colossal figure in astronomy. His research proved that the Milky Way is just one among an infinite number of galaxies. He’s difficult to summarize. Beginning with the words 'Edwin was a curious boy,' Marinov succeeds in distilling Hubble’s life to the essence of youthful curiosity, bringing readers back time and again to the three key questions to which he sought answers: 'How many stars are in the sky? How did the universe begin? Where did it come from?' (themselves typeset in a glimmering silver foil). Marcero’s tender illustrations remind readers on every page that the experience of looking at a dark, starry sky shaped Edwin’s life.” —New York Times

“Author Isabelle Marinov and artist Deborah Marcero pay tender homage to Hubble’s life and legacy in The Boy Whose Head Was Filled with Stars—a splendid addition to the finest picture-book biographies of revolutionary minds… Hubble identifies previously unseen stars within Andromeda and, drawing on Leavitt’s technique for calculating their distance, suddenly realizes that they were much, much father than previously thought—so far that they could not be within the Milky Way. Which meant that there were other galaxies in the universe beyond our own—a staggering revision of the limits of knowledge. At this point in the story, in a classic Enchanted Lion touch of thoughtful loveliness and delight, a gatefold expands into a paper spacetime of colorful swirling galaxies, rendering our Milky Way ‘no more than a small dot in an unimaginably vast universe.’ The story continues with an elegant primer on Hubble’s Law and its humbling, thrilling implications about the universe and our place in it.“ —Maria Popova, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings)

“As a child in Missouri, Edwin Hubble would sit alone outside at night looking up at the stars, and wonder: How many stars are in the sky? How did the universe begin? Where did it come from? In 1897, on his eighth birthday, Edwin received a wonderful gift: a telescope built by his grandfather… It wasn’t until 1914, after his father’s death, that Edwin returned to astronomy, eventually making astonishing discoveries: He would identify that the Andromeda nebula was a separate galaxy, and later, he would discover that the universe was expanding. In 1990, in honor of these discoveries and more, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit. Macero’s impressive illustrations emphasize the vastness of space; back matter—including author and illustrator notes—introduce young sky-watchers to young Edwin and the questions that beguiled him.” —Air & Space Magazine