The Secret Astronomers

by Jessica Walker, Jessica Walker (Illustrator)

Overview

Two strangers. One forgotten astronomy textbook. A decades-old secret.

A fascinating, highly illustrated, epistolary novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Alice Oseman, featuring designed doodled edges!

When a recent transfer student starts keeping her diary in the oldest textbook at the Green Bank High School library, the last thing she expects is to receive a response. Thus begins a sweeping tale of unlikely friendship and long-buried secrets between two secret pen pals at a rural West Virginia high school.

Copernicus is adrift and searching for answers after the sudden death of her mother, and leaving her cosmopolitan life in San Francisco behind. Kepler is a small-town girl with straight A's and big plans to be the first person in her family to go to college, despite her family's modest means. The two girls are so different from one another but united in their goal to solve a mystery that has riddled Green Bank for decades.

Meticulously hand-drawn by debut author Jessica Walker across the pages of an actual ancient astrophysics textbook, The Secret Astronomers is a story of friendship, family, crop circles, secret crushes, giant telescopes, life in Appalachia, and two girls discovering new ways to connect across any divide that separates them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593692677
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Jessica Walker is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, filmmaker, and educator. She is an assistant professor of fine arts at Parsons and has exhibited films, books, and 2D media in solo and group shows in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Australia. Her work is housed in the permanent collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Research Library, Yale University Haas Family Arts Library, and the University of Washington Art Library. She is also the illustrator of Baby Feminists and Baby Feminists Too.

Editorial Reviews

"A wholly original novel that celebrates connection in unlikely places."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 2025-06-13
A 19th-century astronomy textbook connects two isolated teens in this epistolary collection of notes and drawings.

“Copernicus” is grieving their astrophysicist mother’s recent death. Their dad sent them to their grandparents in Green Bank, West Virginia, to complete senior year. A cryptic note their mother left behind leads the San Francisco native to an old textbook in the school library. Since the Green Bank Observatory’s sensitive equipment requires a ban on Wi-Fi in the area, instead of scrolling on their phone, Copernicus spends study hall creating fanciful artwork and writing letters to their mother in the pages of the textbook. After another student leaves a sticky note asking them to stop defacing the book, their exchanges evolve into true dialogue. “Kepler” is only in the school building early each morning, before she’s bussed to a gifted program. While she plans to leave the area for college, she’s proud of her Appalachian roots. The two, who appear white in the illustrations, ultimately join forces to investigate strange phenomena that occurred when Copernicus’ mother was in high school, referring to themselves and other members of their community through astronomy-related code names. Over the school year, they trade candid exchanges and challenge each other to grow. While their communications are confined to paper, their friendship feels organic and earned. Walker’s clever, eye-catching collages and drawings appear on the pages of a real historical astronomy textbook, incorporating the textbook’s contents in ways that maximize their effect.

A wholly original novel that celebrates connection in unlikely places.(Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews