November 2023

I had never heard of Cecilia Payne until I read The Fire of Stars: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of. This book, published in 2023, is written for children by Kirsten Larson and illustrated by Katherine Roy. Find it in the Junior Biography section of the Pine Bush Area Public Library.

Cecilia Payne was born in 1900 in England. Her mother moves the family to London so Cecilia’s older brother could go to a better school. Cecilia finds herself in a worse school. “She realizes her new school is a black hole with none of her favorite classes. No algebra. No German. No science. Not even any friends for a shy and studious girl like her.”

Later, a new science teacher arrives and things improve. Later still, Cecilia graduates, goes to college and changes majors to physics and becomes a scientist. She moves to America and works at Harvard, examining the sky through telescopes, and thinking about what stars are made of. She studies star rainbows, called spectrums. Helium and hydrogen are the important
elements, and she makes a scientific breakthrough.

In the back of the book is “Cecilia Payne: Science Superstar” and “A Star is Born” which includes wonderful drawings of the phases a protostar goes through on its way to becoming a star in the sky. The main text has those pictures too, on one side of a double page, and the other half has pictures of our young scientist, as she struggles on to where she means to be.

It’s a good book, and it flows right along. Find the explanations in the back, and be introduced to someone whom I should have heard of before this. Read The Fire of Stars and take fire at what you could be.