Starry Messenger by Peter Sis

I can see why this book won the Caldacott award medal- the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and truly aid in the telling of the story. I feel that this book could definitely be read aloud (probably only the main text and not the cursive portion) and/or be part of the classroom library. As an independent read, I think this book is more suitable for older elementary students- however I think the small, bold, cursive text is deterring for even the most fluent and adamant readers. It is very hard to read and decipher, and unless the reader is sincerely intrigued and actively engaged enough in the text to take the time to decode the cursive passages, they will most likely be skimmed through or overlooked. There is a wealth of information in these portions of the text- integral information for one who wishes to gain further insight into Galileo's life- and I think the font does a true disservice to the factual content of this story by making it relatively inaccessible. Also- I am concerned that there is no bibliographic information in the back of the book. With no proof of research, this text loses some credibility for me. Regardless of the accuracy, I think it is bad practice for a non-fiction book to exclude resources... thanking a few professors and crediting a quoted text seems sort of like a cop-out to me when a book is expected to relay factual information to students learning about certain subject matter. 

That being said, I still think this book would be a great asset to any science curriculum or classroom library. If it is part of a classroom library, I would suggest that the teacher types up the cursive passages on a separate piece of paper so that students have an easier time accessing the information.