Deborah Hopkinson

“The author plants the seeds for Mari­a’s lat­er accom­plish­ments (the first pro­fes­sor of astron­o­my at Vas­sar; a co-founder of the Asso­ci­a­tion for the Advance­ment of Women) in the first-per­son nar­ra­tive: “Each con­stel­la­tion is a patch­work of stories/ passed down from the begin­ning of time.” Lani­no (The Lit­tlest Angel) aug­ments this pow­er­ful image with an equal­ly potent ren­der­ing of Mari­a’s rooftop com­mu­nion with the stars, her eyes wide as the celes­tial con­fig­u­ra­tions illu­mi­nate the sky. The artist clos­es the dis­tance between earth and stars with the warmth and soft­ness that per­me­ate each illus­tra­tion. This lilt­ing sto­ry, com­bined with clos­ing notes on both Mitchell and astron­o­my, will like­ly ignite fur­ther inter­est in its pas­sion­ate pro­tag­o­nist.” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly)