This is a good book for kids 5th grade and up who want to learn a a bit about astronomy. It covers the history of the field as well as info about the constellations. It's a quick easy read and adults may enjoy it, as well. The illustrations were nicely done and fit the book very well.

I love stargazing, and I especially love to read about the myths behind the constellations - highly recommend if you're interested in the stars.

This book is absolutely beautiful! The illustrations alone are a reason to pick it up. I enjoyed how it was an infotmative yet quick read.

Oh what a lovely book! Gorgeously illustrated, with lots of fascinating information about the night sky. It's suitable for people of all ages, and I'll certainly be buying copies of this as gifts - who wouldn't love to receive such a beautiful and informative book?
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky by Kelsey Oseid is an illustrated guide to the myths, histories, and science of the celestial bodies of our solar system, with stories and information about constellations, planets, comets, the northern lights, and more. It includes more than 100 magical pieces of original art, all accompanied by text that shares both related legends, lore, and scientific facts. This book covers the constellations, the moon, the bright stars, and the visible planets, as well as less familiar celestial phenomena like the outer planets, nebulae, and deep space. Adults seeking to recapture the magic of youthful stargazing, younger readers interested in learning about natural history and outer space, and those who appreciate beautiful, hand-painted art will all delight in this charming book.

What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky is a beautiful and informative read. I found it to be well organized, accessible, and interesting to read. I have always been fascinated by the sky, I was one of those kids that wanted to be an astronaut, until I discovered how much math and engineering was involved in the process. In fact, I was in the astronomy club in high school and loved every minute of it. I still read about and study the sky when I can. I like that this book features both the science and the related legends and history that make astronomy so fascinating to me. The science is well worded and organized, and not lacking in any way when combined with the other included information. The hand painted artwork only adds to the wonder this book inspires. What a great book for anyone with interest in the night sky and all the science, myth, and legend that can be found there.

What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky is a wonderful read, and one that I might add to my library. My only issues were with the digital galley, which has no bearing on the final product but reduced my ability to fully enjoy the combination of stunning artwork and the text.

What We See In The Stars is a wonderful book with a lot of good information laid out in an easy to read format, great for a beginner astronomer or someone who has taken an interest in astronomy.
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Laid out in successive sections, the importance of astronomy and our understanding of the stars in laid out and written in common language accompanied by wonderful artistry. The stars are outlined in their importance in history, mythology, culture and science as well as our understanding of what lies beyond.

Through reading, I developed an understanding of how we see space from the Earth and how this has developed over time. I was surprised to learn that the Islamic people were among the first to name the stars and their names have been Latinized over time. I loved looking through Ptolemy's Constellations and learning their stories along with the stars that make them up and how they fit in with Greek mythology. The modern constellations added many constellations that I had no idea were recognized, such as the microscope, the telescope and the giraffe. The section of our own galaxy, the milky way was intriguing. There are beautiful depictions of the moon, it's phases, geologic features and seasonal names. This section also discusses the sun, seasons, eclipses and goes into detail about each planet.

A gorgeous book that encouraged me to get outside at night and look up to see what can be discovered.

I am in lovvveeeeee with this book! It's so easy to read and Kelsey Oseid really does a fantastic job of describing in interesting detail everything that exist in the Universe. From the Constellations, to our galaxy, to the Sun and the Moon, and even space debris and whether there could be other life out there. The book designer Betsy Stromberg also does a stellar job depicting all of these galactic objects. Whether a child or an adult, this book has information that is beneficial to all who are starting their first adventure into the unknown. I definitely want to add this book to my physical library.

P.S. A subtitle for this book should also be "Oseid's brief Encyclopedia of the Universe."

The illustrations are mesmerizing and magical, but the formatting of the book kinda threw me off. It feels more like a text book rather than a light graphic novel. I think it might be better if it's made into a kind of story, like a parent-children or campfire story, which is what I expected from this book.

When I look up in the sky, what do I see? Not much, really. First of all, I don't often know what to look for. More importantly though, like the vast majority of us, I live in an area where light pollution prevents me from seeing all but the brightest stars. Kelsey Oseid can't do much about light pollution, but she can dispel some of our ignorance about the night sky. What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky may be directed at younger readers, but like all good children's books, it provides enough engaging information that adults will enjoy it as well.

The bulk of What We See in the Stars describes many constellations, but she includes chapters on the sun, moon, planets, and other objects. I like her descriptions and background of the constellations, but she doesn't give a lot of guidance to finding them in the night sky. Maybe it's a moot point, since most of us can't even see them. Also, any resource I've ever looked at about constellations leaves me still wondering how in the world the ancients saw that particular shape in the particular cluster of stars. . . . However, Oseid identifies a constellation that even one as unimaginative as I can appreciate: Triangulum! It looks just like the name suggests! Thank you!


What We See in the Stars is not a field manual or a star atlas, but more of a prelude to either. It will answer questions you always wondered about, regarding the tides, the phases of the moon, the sun, our place in the universe, and, of course, the constellations. Let Oseid whet your appetite to get out of town, look up, and see the sky as God intended it to be seen.

Thanks the NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

This is a really very good book, taking a lot of space science and stargazing, and presenting it in a very artistic way I would not have expected to enjoy as much as I did. Its focus is also very different to so many other books – for while it does define planets, meteors and so on for us, its bulk is taken with a survey of the entire collection of the constellations – not just the commonly known ones from the zodiac, but even all the piddly little ones. The fact this proves the people who came up with them must have been on some kind of drugs is neither here nor there – the connection between the shape of the stars and the shape seen to be defined by them is completely spurious more often than not – for at least we can understand what all the astral pictures are supposed to be of. This gives us a gentle, unforced look at the history of our space science – the people who were doing the stargazing and what they were thinking of, for example. In coming to a much different scale by the end – nebulae and exoplanets and so on – we bring ourselves up to date, but there's still no problem in the design being so deliberately hand-drawn. This proves you don't need an extensive NASA photo library to make such a book, and can instead present something for all ages to learn from with your own warm craft. Wonderful.

this book was really hard to read. it seemed beautiful but the format of the ebook was all over the place. font was different colors (blue, black, gray) and different sizes. on some pages it was just gibberish going down the page. it made it really hard to make sense of what was going on. there were a few interesting facts but the format for ebooks is a huge downfall and hopefully will be fixed before publication

This book is beautifully illustrated and also very informative. I expected it to be nice to look at, but I also learned lots of fun facts about the universe!

This is a very enjoyable book for adults and kids alike that will take you on a journey across the night sky. It introduces the reader to the constellations, milky way, our solar system and other celestial phenomena with clear explanations of their behavior, interactions and mythological references.
The beautiful illustrations are also informative and can catch the attention of the youngest readers. The simply explained terms, phenomena and mythological references make it a great choice as a first approach to astronomy, It succeeds to keep the reader engaged instead of overwhelmed. I can see this book as one of those few you will get as a kid but will continue enjoying over the years.

This book would be truly beautiful but the formatting has gone a bit wrong on the kindle file so I couldn't fully enjoy it. I will need to get my hands on a printed copy to be able to review it properly. In all honesty though it is a book I would always want to own in print - an ebook would never do it justice.

My general thought is that this is a beautiful and compelling introduction to the night skies.

Each major constellation, the sun, moon phases and Milky Way are covered in this well researched, well illustrated book.
A great book for schools.

A great book about everything in the nights sky. Child friendly illustrations and explanations.

Goodreads Rating: 3.5 stars
NetGalley Rating: 3 stars

First up: The illustrations in this are gorgeous. The short paint strokes and the various shades of blue really capture the depth of space. I can only imagine how awesome they will look on the printed page, especially if glossy ink/paper is used.

Overall, the information presented in this book is an excellent introduction to the constellations, planets, and other aspects of our universe. I found myself constantly comparing it to H.A. Rey’s The Stars–much of the information here is similar to what’s presented in Rey’s book, but Oseid’s presentation is a bit more simplistic and a better jumping off point for younger audiences.

The book’s main selling point, the overview of constellations, are well done, but I had a few peeves with them. Each of the major constellations gets a page with an illustration of the constellation, and a brief rundown of the mythological story(ies) behind it and some mentions of deep space objects contained within the constellation. However, each constellation is presented by itself against a general background, with no other constellations surrounding it. Additionally, none of the deep space objects mentioned are pointed to in the drawing. It was also a bit odd that there was not even a sky chart overview, showing the constellations of both hemispheres, to at least provide some basic orienting. Northern and Southern constellations were also not distinguished in this section, which could be confusing for some readers.

The rest of the book provides a general overview of each of the planets, meteors and asteroids and comets, and deep space. These sections provide excellent jumping off points for research about the topics–I know I would have loved this as a source when I did some Solar System reports in grade school!

While I still prefer Rey’s book to this, this is an excellent “beginner Rey” book to give to younger kids, especially if they need a source for a report. It’s also just lovely to look at, so it would make a pretty companion to any astronomy shelf.

It wasn't what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised. This book is the perfect balance between interesting and beautiful.

Do you remember looking up at the stars as a kid, being told that is Orion's Belt, Casiopea's Chair or that is the Big Dipper, and all you could see were stars, not the picture the names suggested. And when you looked at reference books, they weren't much better help.

This book is for the kid in us, as well as kids today. It is so cool. Well researched, well documented, and lovely pictures, showing which stars are supposed to represent what parts of the constellation. There is also a little bit of history, and what the brightest star is. This last bit is important, because depending on the light pollution in the area you are in, you might only be able to see the brightest star.

Each major constellation is written about, both ancient as well as modern. But, wait, there is more. This book also covers the Milky Way, the Sun and the phases of the moon.

The only failing is that there is not a large foldout start chart showing where to find all the stars, although that would be rather hard, because it is different depending where you are in the world.

Highly recommend this book for classrooms, libraries and personal homes.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I've been lucky enough to receive a few e-books from the unusual publisher, Ten Speed Press and this one is another that is beautifully published. I love anything to do with the moon or stars and the stunning illustrations of this book instantly drew me in - it would make a lovely little coffee table book or as a gift as aesthetically it's divine.

This short illustrated non-fiction book focuses on the main constellations and stars such as the zodiac signs and it explains a little history about them, for example, many of the stars names and origins are from greek mythology as well as arabic cultures, the latter point I didn't know. I do love the illustrations but I think they could have been a little more detailed to match the information and I think it would have been great to see some larger or full page illustrations as they are so gorgeous! I was a little disappointed as it seemed to have a few sentences that were just copied from previous sections over and over and it felt a little info dumpy to me whereas I think it could have been more engaging, fun and more interestingly presented than it was.