H.A. Rey (and his wife, Margaret Rey) are best known as the authors of the Curious George series. Less well known is their personal history, emigrating from Hamburg, Germany during the 1930’s, first to Rio de Janeiro, and then to Paris, followed by a harrowing escape across France by bicycle in 1940 when the Germans invaded, making their way eventually to the United States. There’s a great book out that recounts that story – The Journey That Saved Curious George. 
Find the Constellations is a classic book, that many of us will remember from our childhood – without ever having necessarily connected it the Curious George books. H.A. Rey originally published this book in 1954 – and it was hailed at the time as a classic introduction to the night sky, with some of the clearest star charts and constellation outlines ever produced.
This is a 72 page, 9in. x 10in. book, and goes far beyond just teaching the outlines of the constellations. Rey provides an introduction to the history of the constellations, the concept of star magnitude or brightness, the individual names of some of the brightest and most famous stars, and how to find and identify the planets. He also discusses the precession of the stars across the night sky day by day. The difference from one day to the next in a star reaching the same spot in the sky is 4 minutes. In one week it is 28 minutes. In a month, about 2 hours. In 12 months, 24 hours, and the stars are back to the positions at the same time as one year ago. This is a very practical way of introducing the connections between the motions of the earth and the stars and the seasons. And that is but one example of the topics artfully introduced.
Rey was a true renaissance man. German by birth, he studied philosophy, natural sciences, and languages at the universities of Munich and Hamburg. He spoke four languages fluently and read half a dozen more.
It’s great to see a classic children’s book like this revived and re-issued by the publisher – this edition brought out by Houghton Mifflin just last month.
Find the Constellations is 72 pages, and available in hardback ($20) or paperback ($9.99) and can be ordered directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on any of the links in this review.
10% discount offer with this email – use the coupon code REY at check out and 10% will be automatically deducted from your order.
Discount coupon can only be used once per customer and applies only to the title Find the Constellations (either hardback or paperback).
– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press