The story of the African-American women mathematicians who worked on the American space programme and who have remained unknown and unacknowledged up to now makes for a fascinating story. Although the book is aimed at children it is of interest to a young adult, even adult, readership as well and I enjoyed this glimpse into these women’s lives and the social and political setting against which they often had to struggle.

This book was so informative and well-written. It explores the women of color that helped our country win the race to space and details their lives in ways that we have never seen discussed in the history books we had in school

Great read, especially in you have seen the film! Do both.

Rissman does an important service in acknowledging the black female "computers", without whom the US would have had a much more difficult problem in achieving spaceflight and getting to the moon. Her style is matter-of-fact and seeks to simply tell us who these women were rather than glorify them.

This book is a great companion to Hidden Figures as it chapter tells the story of a forgotten African-American heroine in NASA's history. I wished dealt with the sexism and racism these women lived with on a daily basis, but it can still serve as an introduction to what life was like for the women featured in this book, and countless other women who toiled under similar circumstances.

With the release of Hidden Figures in 2016 many have realized the importance that mathematicians, or "human computers" as they were otherwise known, were in the Space Race in the 1950's and 1960's. There were exceptional women who worked behind the scenes. They were the Hidden Women.

Hidden Women is the incredible story of four women African-American mathematicians who were momentous in the NASA program and the space race. They worked behind the scenes, fought to overcome sexism as well as racial strife, and overcame it all, becoming instrumental in the NASA program.

As I read this book I was awe-struck by the strength that each woman incapsulated. To go through what they went through and do what they did is so inspiring! They helped put a man on the moon as well as broke barriers not only for their race but also their gender. After reading this book I wonder how different the journey to the moon would've been without these incredible women.

Hidden Women is well written, fast paced, and incredibly informative. It is geared towards an 8-12 year old audience but I believe older audiences would also enjoy it. Highly recommend!

This is an EXCELLENT book for middle school students, younger advanced readers, and even adults. It is very much like the movie Hidden Figures, telling the story of the African=American women who did the complex math for NASA to be able to land a man on on the moon (and all the accomplishments that led up to that point). I think that my students would like this book.

The story of the African-American women mathematicians who worked on the American space programme and who have remained unknown and unacknowledged up to now makes for a fascinating story. Although the book is aimed at children it is of interest to a young adult, even adult, readership as well and I enjoyed this glimpse into these women’s lives and the social and political setting against which they often had to struggle.

Very interesting and powerful book on women in history that was ignored until recently. I really enjoyed it.

while the story is so incredibly important (Hidden Figures is AMAZING) and I definitely believe that children should be told the story of these women, the story begins pathetically whitewashed. It actually says that all the white men eventually see Johnson as not just a colored woman and that she feels lucky to simply have a job as NASA. The book needs to tell the story while dealing with the racism (and sexism) of the time. You can't tell their story without explaining the importance of their struggle.

This book tells briefly about six African American women who worked for NASA, as human computers, engineers, and more. It tells about the opposition they faced because of their gender and race. It also discusses their contributions and how they were important to NASA's success. It also talks about the Space Race between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

This book is well-written and enjoyable for middle schoolers, young adults, and even adults who want a brief introduction to these women and their contributions. It also would be a good discussion-starter for talking about discrimination and civil rights.

I read a copy via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

<http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=65153>
The unsung heroines who landed others on the Moon

Hidden Women: The African-American Women Mathematicians Who Helped America Win the Space Race
by Rebecca Rissman

Capstone


History , Middle Grade
Pub Date 01 Feb 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Hidden Women through Captone and Netgalley:


In this Middle Grade book children from the ages of eight to twelve will learn how Four African American Women, mathematicians helped to launch Us rockets and Astronauts made it possible to launch U.S Rockets and astronauts into space.

Katherine Johnson had a gift for Math from a young age, she skipped grades and graduated-School at the age of fourteen, at eighteen she graduated from West Virginia State College with the highest honors got married and had children and got the only job she could at the time that of a teacher. Johnson enjoyed teaching but struggled to make ends meet, but in 1953 she was hired by NASA, in a segregated unit at first, her supervisor was Dorothy Vaughan, but after only two weeks she was handed her an on site assignment helping calculate numbers for the flight research division. Johnson faced resistance from her white co-workers many simply ignored her , but in time she got along well with her white coworkers!

Miriam Mamm was also one of the women who helped send man to space.

Mary Jackson was also one of Thea four African American Women who helped to launch man into space.


Annie Easley was a Computer Programmer for NASA , her computer skills helped launch rockets into Space..


These women were trailblazers for Women as well as African Americans and in fact they did things most men could not do to help send man into space.


I give Hidden Women five out of five stars!


Happy Reading !

This book is about the African-American women who worked at NASA. It’s a lot like the book and movie Hidden Figures but written for children.

There are many reasons this book is important for children, particularly girls of colour, to read this book. These women demonstrate how important women were to the work of NASA. They worked behind the scenes, so they were not the focal point of the news stories. Everyone can picture the white male astronauts who landed on the moon, but not the black women who did the math and science that made it possible for them to do it. It’s important for young children to be able to see themselves in historical figures.

This story also highlights the importance of math and science in the days before computers. The job titles for these women was “computer” before there were machines of the same name. Often today, children don’t understand the point of learning math when they can just do the same computations on their cell phones in seconds. But it’s important to know how to do these things, because sometimes even the computers can be wrong.

This book is nonfiction but each chapter reads like a short story narrative about the women who worked at NASA. This will make the story accessible and entertaining for young readers.

I highly recommend this book for young readers!

I come from a family that is in love with space. Whether it's Star Wars, From the Earth to the Moon, actually applying to ESA, or studying Astronomy, we love the stars. So of course we loved Hidden Figures and the attention it brought to the African-American women who worked tirelessly to support the American space programme and yet weren't recognised for it. Since the movie came out I have been looking for more information on these women, and Hidden Women was a great introductory read. Thanks to Capstone and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Hidden Figures came out, it spawned a whole range of books on the women central to the story. There were a plethora of them and I found it quite difficult to choose one to start with. African-American women have often had their hard work erased, either by actively hiding their involvement or giving the praise to those already in the spotlight. You can see it even now in America, where African-American women are a leading force in preventing people like Roy Moore winning elections, or organising protests for women's rights. What also adds interest to the women in Hidden Women is that they are a rare breed: women working in STEM. Although at university level women are more likely to study these subjects and do well in them, women still struggle against preconceptions in these fields. From young girls being told to pick Barbies over building sets, to young women being harassed in laboratories, a lot of obstacles still stand in women's ways. It is my hope that books like these, by bringing the stories of these women back, it will inspire more young women to enter these fields and have their contributions rewarded.

Rebecca Rissman does a great job at introducing the various women she describes. She tracks Katherine Johnson, Miriam Mann, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Annie Easley and Christine Darden, as well as some of the women currently working for NASA. She shows how these women worked their way up, as well as the challenges they faced on the way. African-American women then and now find themselves struggling not only against misogynistic prejudices, but also have to overcome racial stereotypes and active racism. Rissman really manages to convey their passion for the work they do, as well as their determination to let nothing stand in their way. Hidden Women is a great introductory read, giving you some of the details without getting too bogged down. I call it introductory because I would have loved some more information, for Rissman to dig down a little bit deeper into the circumstances of the women, the actual work they did, etc. But this isn't necessarily the book for that. Rissman made sure to consult people currently still working at NASA and the bibliography at the end of the book makes a great jumping off point for future research and reading.

For those who want to know a little bit more about the African-American women who worked for NASA during the space programme, Hidden Women is perfect. However, I'm still looking for a book that will really dig into their lives and their work. Recommendations anyone?

WHAT THE BOOK’S ABOUT
This is a non-fiction book about the African-American women who did the math that launched rockets into space... From Katherine Johnson to Dorothy Vaughan to Mary Jackson to Miriam Mann and others.

WHAT’S COOL…
1) Each chapter deals with one of the women who worked at NASA during the years of the Space Race. It was a nice way to organize the information. For the most part, Rissman tells one main story per woman. For example, Katherine Johnson's story is that of John Glenn insisting that they "get the girl to run the numbers" before he is launched into space. He knew he could trust HER where he didn't know what to think of this new IBM computer contraption.

2) There's a nice balance of NASA history interspersed with the history of desegregation. Again, Rissman chooses a vignette to illustrate. The story she uses is that of Miriam Mann's quiet defiance against segregation in the cafeteria.

3) I thought Rissman did a nice job explaining the high (and low) points of the Space Race. I actually learned some things I didn't know before. 

4) I like the pictures scattered throughout the book. And the graphics that incorporate the math and physics involved in rocket science are nicely done. We get to see old photographs of the women who worked at NASA, alongside photos of the rockets and astronauts they helped launch into space.

WHAT’S NOT COOL…
1) Sorry, but I am NOT crazy about the title of this book. It certainly invokes the book Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. But that title IS clever. I'm guessing that since this book is for kids, they decided to go with a title that is more on-the-nose. Which is okay. It's just not great.

FINAL THOUGHTS
My rating is 4 Stars (out of 5) – I thought this was a nice dive into the history of these women at NASA. For ages 8-12, it'd be a great resource for any classroom!

An excellent companion to the great movie Hidden Figures!! I will definitely be recommending this to my customers!

This is an engaging history of four female African-American mathematicians who helped shape America's early aeronautics program written for middle-grade readers. Yes, there is a young reader's edition of Shetterly's acclaimed book; multiple titles of the same topic at the library or book store are valuable. Together they help to show that it is an important topic! Books that can help young women interested in STEM fields find role models who look like them are needed. It's beneficial that the stories include how these trailblazers arrived at their career and challenges they overcame. Hidden Women helps to share the advances pioneered by these strong, hardworking, and brilliant women.

I must admit I did not see the movie Hidden Figures (I meant to, but there's a long list of movies that fall under that category) so this was all new to me. It's a great intro to the group of women who accomplished so much but never got any acknowledgement for their work.

It's inspiring to see everything this group of women (and really all women from that time) did even though at the end of the day they would be forgotten and more or less left without too much credit.

This is a nice overview of some of the women who worked for NASA and some of the other space agencies. It details some of their struggles and triumphs during the 1950s and 60s, when segregation was at it's peak.