Five Secrets in a Box - Hardcover

Brighton, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525443185 ISBN 13: 9780525443186

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 1987

Synopsis

Restless and curious in the long afternoon while her father Galileo sleeps, Virginia explores his study and discovers some of the tools he uses in his scientific experiments

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2 In this beautiful but obscure picture book, Virginia, the young daughter of Galileo, slips into her father's study and timorously examines five treasures she finds in a gold box on his desk. Experimenting with the lenses and fragments of colored glass, she discovers the wonder of enlarging distant scenes, of turning the surrounding countryside and its inhabitants into vivid reds or blues. She cannot fathom the significance of the last item, a soft, white feather. Telling her only that it is important to his work, her doting father later gives her the feather to decorate her hair. Brighton does indeed capture the later Renaissance Italy setting through her sumptuous full-color illustrations and lavish attention to detail in dress and furnishings. Many of the implements Galileo used for his scientific studies are accurately depicted. But the audience for this picture book would be unable either to recognize or to understand the uses of the equipment pictured. Further, the text is choppy and spare, and readers are never offered any explanation about Galileo's research or his astonishing discoveries. Brighton does include an explanatory historical note, but librarians or teachers using the book would need to present much more background information than the text provides to make the story accessible for young listeners. Although aesthetically appealing, this picture book is both too much and too little for its intended audience. Martha Rosen, Edgewood Sch . , Scarsdale, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Galileo's daughter Virginia sleeps as her father observes the night skies. By day he sleeps as she rustles up to his observatory. There she espies a box with five items in it: a round piece of glass that makes small things, like words, more visible; a second piece that makes a golden oriole in a distant tower appear nearer; a blue fragment that turns a hunting prince's day into night; another, a red one, sets the prince's world on fire, as his falcon flies to the lure; and finally, a soft, white feather. By her father's bedside, a book crashes to the floor while the feather floats down slowly. He places the feather in her hair and goes back to sleep, leaving Virginia to "parade like a proud bird all day." In her extraordinary setting and highly elaborate mementos of things past, Brighton articulates the grand scheme of the idea of science in a simple story of mysterious crystals and colored worlds. Not unlike Pandora's box, Virginia's contains elements that irrevocably alter the future, In this captivating and imaginative work, exquisite patterns, checkered floors and fancifully colored artifacts uncover the iridescent Florentine past. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0525443185
• ISBN 13: 9780525443186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 28