When Vera Rubin was growing up in the 1930s, she loved the night sky. But it wasn’t the stars themselves that fascinated her as much as the mystery that surrounded them. Her pursuit of astronomy as an academic subject in college was largely stymied by men who didn’t think women belonged in their field. Yet Vera persisted, and she continued to study and search for a pattern in the arrangement of galaxies. Her work eventually earned her great respect in astrophysics; continuing to question and push the boundaries of her world she discovered dark matter, which makes up 80 percent of the known universe. Fluid writing and engaging dark-hued watercolor illustrations mark this picture-book biography of a white woman who broke a lot of gender barriers in the field of astronomy by pursuing her dreams. The book’s back matter documents the impressive amount of primary research the author did to pull together a short biography of a little-known historical figure. (Ages 5-8)