I have this on my wish list for the upcoming budget year. A great and accessible read for some of my students in grade seven and eight who are needing something with lots of information on this topic but could be too easily bogged down and overwhelmed.

Based on Hidden Figures, but written for middle-school age children, this book tells of the challenges faced and overcome by the highly intelligent and brave African-American women Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Miriam Mann & Mary Jackson. They worked for NACA (the organization which would become NASA) as computers in the early days of the space program, when women of color were not accepted as the equal of their peers, throughout the landing of a man on the moon when their considerable contributions were recognized. It then goes beyond those years, describing the work environment at NASA for the second generation of women of color, and into current times.

Rebecca Rissman does such an excellent job of describing the social and political climate of the time period when this book takes place that I believe it should be required reading for every American middle-schooler. The book is fact-based, easy to understand, and talks about segregation, the Race for Space, and the Cold War in an unbiased way and informative way.

A wonderful read, I give this 5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

This is a book written for middle school level but as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed it. It describes the experiences of African American woman working in the space industry. These women made an incredible contribution to the space race. They helped the US win the space race. The book describes the obstacles they faced as African American woman. The last chapter of the book compares the experiences of women currently working in the industry to the experiences of the women of the past. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy of this book.

With the box office success of "Hidden Figures" and the demand for more books such as Hidden Human Computers (by Duchess Harris), it is not surprising to see that publishers have stepped up to fulfill the need. Hidden Women tells the story of six African-American women who worked with NASA and its predecessor NACA, to help win the Space Race. Their stories are interwoven with historical events such as Gagarin's first orbit of the Earth, Civil Rights sit-ins, and JFK's dream to have America be the first to land a man on the moon.

Katherine Johnson, Miriam Mann (grandmother of Duchess Harris), Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Annie Easley, and Christine Darden are included in this discussion of the role African-American women played in the country's space program. Through the details of their careers, readers learn of the many challenges facing these women. While other workers were given paid leave to attend college, or received funds from NASA to pay their tuition, these ladies had to take unpaid leave and find their own way to finance college degrees. Even if they did have degrees, they were still assigned to pools of workers, rather than being given the same pay and projects that the white men at NASA enjoyed. There were also segregation issues such as not being allowed to live in the dorms on base, having to sit at separate tables in the lunchroom, or use separate restrooms.

Despite all the negative aspects of their jobs, these women still accomplished remarkable things. Some calculated trajectories to safely get astronauts to the moon and back again, others plotted out the safe rendezvous between two spacecraft or made rockets flying with extremely volatile fuel safe to use. Some tested aircraft and spacecraft designs in wind tunnels, or developed new computer code to use with the FORTRAN they had already learned. They all exceeded the expectations of everyone around them in the work place, proving that women and people from diverse racial backgrounds were just as capable as the white men on the job.

A final chapter visits with three women who are currently working in the space industry and contrasts their experiences with those of the early pioneers like Johnson and Easley. Back matter includes a timeline, glossary, bibliography, source notes, and index. There is a list of books for those who wish to read more about the topic, and also critical thinking questions that would be useful for a book group or class book study. The archival photos throughout the book show all the featured women, as well as several of the astronauts and rockets mentioned.

Recommended for middle grades and up.

Well written and easy to to read. I don’t always enjoy biographical tomes, but this one is a winner in so many ways.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you would probably have heard of the African American women who were the driving force at NASA in the 1960's. What struck me (and my 14 year old daughter who read it) was the women had a double whammy--being a woman and a minority. And yet through it all, they persevered with grace an dignity.

This book manages to tell the story nicely with no overly preachy undertones. It presents the facts with great descriptions

It would be impossible to go into space without mathematicians. Like Katherine Johnson in 1962, we [black women] are used to being essential but unseen. In 1958, Miriam Mann became NASA's first black female engineer. Before that in 1949, Dorothy Vaughn became the first black manager there. These women literally made it possible for U.S. rockets and astronauts to go into space. This is no small feat. Add in the daily struggles of being a colored woman in a segregated world and the resistance experienced. The amazing result and work of these women is an important part of history that I am glad is being told.

I recommend Hidden Women for young readers. This is an easy-to-follow history story perfect for Black History Month. It includes a timeline of events, glossary, further reading list, critical thinking questions and sources. There are pictures of Apollo 1, Centaur, astronauts and of course, the women. For my bookhearts with young children or in education, I highly suggest this book. Not only does it spotlight the three (3) women we have grown to appreciate but other less-known, second generation of black women who worked behind-the-scenes at NASA. They used their expertise to help the United States. We can all excel in math and science. We can also literally reach for the moon. Show young people that we are crucial to success.

Happy Early Pub Day, Rebecca Rissman. Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped America Win the Space Race will be available February 1, 2018.

LiteraryMarie

Rebecca Rissman does a great job of chronicling the lives of the African American "Human Computers" who helped NASA reach the stars to win the space race and successfully land on the Moon. Not just providing a narrative, Rissman adds actually photos throughout this book to give readers a deeper connection with these amazing women who almost slipped through the cracks and pages of history. Against a difficult and oppressive socio-cultural backdrop, these women not only managed to overcome the racist pressure of their jobs but also misogyny and helped paved a new way for future generations of women "steminist". It seems as though the Latin creed for the Apollo 1 effigy can also be applied here, "ad astra per aspera" meaning "A rough road leads to the stars".

I believe this book would be a great companion to the movie that was recently released about these phenomenal women called "Hidden Figures". It even provides Critical Questions for discussion and other books one might think to be beneficial in regards to these Hidden Figures.

This book is a narrative nonfiction. It’s written in an easy to understand style regarding the African-American mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race of the 1960s and 1970s. They were the best mathematicians around, but segregation and racial tensions flourished during this time. This book acknowledges some of the daily and work-related struggles they faced and how they overcame them. One theme that stuck out over the course of this book: you can do anything you set your heart on, you just might have to work harder at it.

One of the mathematicians grew up in West Virginia. If you’re interested in the space program, and the events that took place during this time period, you would enjoy this book. Pictures are included of the women this book speaks about, as well of some of the astronauts of this time frame and the equipment used. It also talks about the failures and accomplishments experienced by the space program. At the end of the book is a read more section, if you want other books on the same topic, and critical thinking questions at the end, as well as a glossary.

The information is portrayed in such a way young teens through adults would enjoy this book, learning more about the space program, as well as some of the key players during this time. I would highly recommend Hidden Women.

I received a free copy from Net Galley in the hope that I would mention/review it on my blog. I was not required to give a positive review, only my honest opinion - which I've done. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Nicely done middle-grade version of <em>Hidden Figures</em> would be the best way to describe this, though I have to say I have only seen the movie and not read the book, so that may be to simplified, although the bibliography does list that book, as well as others, as one of the author's sources.

What is nice about this is how Rebecca brings in what was going on socially while these women were working for NASA, about the civil rights movement, and the cold war. And the story does not end with with the landing on the moon, but goes as far, in the final chapter, the epilogue as talking about where women of color are today, in the agency.

Would recommend this for middle school classrooms and libraries. Lost of positive stories of women working to advance despite obstacles. Good to get the story out for the younger readers too.

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

As NASA raced to the moon, a number of African-American women played key roles throughout the process. This is a middle grade book that details the life and careers of these ladies. Overall, this was a well researched and written book. It seemed to be a good mix of education and storytelling.

It opened up a whole new world of history to me alone. It will be great for our children that need someone new and different when it comes to history papers