From: Beth Wright <bethlibrarian>
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 09:58:52 -0700 (PDT)

I think it's interesting that when Sis illustrated Starry Messenger, a book about the discovery of a rational, scientific fact, he chose to include so many fantastic details in his pictures. Even the illustrations most grounded in reality (like the two page spread of Galileo locked in his house under guard) have an unearthly quality: the restraining wall around the house has a face on it; the guards outside shine ghost-like in the moon light; half-seen figures peer out of the hedge in front of Galileo's home.

And it's interesting to speculate why -- Sis does fantastic imagery so well, maybe he couldn't bear to do this book without it? Or, more likely, the imagery gives a good sense of the superstitions that pervaded Galileo's world?

Megan has already commented on the endpapers. I've been fascinated by them since a CCBC book discussion where someone pointed out that one endpaper depicts Galileo's time, while the other depicts a visually similar scene in the present. That's Galileo in the window in the first scene, but who has the telescope in the second scene? Visual puzzles like this one are one of the little extras that make Sis' work so intriguing.

Beth Wright Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont

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Received on Wed 06 Jun 2001 11:58:52 AM CDT