Wanda hears the stars

This picture-book biography traces the struggle and triumph of a little girl who kept searching until she found a new path to viewing the stars. Today, Merced is a world-renowned astrophysicist and advocate for inclusivity in science, but as a child, she never saw stars at all, as the rain-forest canopy in Puerto Rico, where she grew up, obscured her view. When Merced was nine, on a fishing trip with her father, she saw stars for the first time, as well as a meteor shower. This was the revelation--brilliantly conveyed by Mendoza through pointy stars and streams of color--that transformed Merced's life, leading her to study physics. After Merced lost her sight as a college student, she learned that she could access the stars by tuning into radio waves in space, allowing her to hear what she couldn't see, part of the process of sonification, explained clearly and compellingly in the text. The digital illustrations, with their startling images of light and dark, enhance the theme. "A Note from Wanda" at book's end includes her rallying cry, "Science is for everyone!"

Astronomer and co-author Díaz Merced explains how, after going blind, she used sound to make a groundbreaking discovery. In Gurabo, Wanda's Puerto Rican hometown, the rainforest hid the stars. So when 9-year-old Wanda witnessed a meteor shower, she "lit up with wonder." Her curiosity persisted; in college, Wanda studied physics and "aimed for the stars." But in Wanda's third year, she went blind as a result of diabetes, and "the stars had dimmed, too. How could she study what she couldn't see?" Fortunately, a friend introduced Wanda to radio waves that captured sounds from space, and "she heard a path to the sky." At NASA, Wanda used sonification--the conversion of visual data into sounds--to study the stars. Still, she worried about keeping up with her colleagues. Through sonification, however, Wanda discovered oscillations in a star's energy, something nobody else had noticed--confirming that "using sound didn't mean she had less information. It just meant she had to work differently." The onomatopoeia-adorned text includes Spanish dialogue and concludes with a rousing invitation: "Look up! ¡Mira arriba! The stars belong to everyone!" Arreola Mendoza's vibrant cartoon illustrations, with dark, jewel-toned hues evoking the night sky, convey Wanda's fascination and determination and the beauty of space. Extensive backmatter provides further details about sonification and Díaz Merced's adaptation to blindness. Most figures, including Wanda, have brown skin. Uplifting and informative. (glossary, authors' notes, more information on Díaz Merced, timeline, resources, bibliography)(Picture-book biography. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.