Eleanor is accidentally found out for her math brain & ends up being recruited by the US Army to help problem solve their newest weapon. She’s 17 & the youngest out of the other recruits. Eleanor needs to get out of her shell & taking this job proves to help her do that. This story was a quick read & I liked the storyline. Eleanor had great character development, grew up & learned a lot. Definitely a young adult book aimed for middle school/high school readers.

Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is shy but loves numbers. Her classmates call her 'Nervous Nelly'. She's a math whiz but she has other worries. She worries about her Jewish relatives in Europe as the war rages overseas. And she blames herself for her father's stroke. Then during a chance encounter at Math Meet, she's recruited by the U.S. Government to use her math abilities to help a top-secret weapon that will help America defeat its enemies. Can she overcome her nervousness and make a difference? Even if this means facing her worst fears head-on?

What worked: Fascinating portrayal of a teen 'human computer' during WWII. An interesting fact is that the U.S. government used these mostly women mathematicians to use calculations to help break codes and much more. Only recently have we learned about these brave women. Eleanor is one of them.

The novel shows a multi-dimensional character with strengths like her math ability and love of family. But it also shows her vulnerabilities like her nervousness and fear of standing out. Readers see Eleanor go from a shy teen to one who is recruited to help solve a top-secret project across the country. She faces harassment while traveling alone, antisemitism from a fellow recruit, and overwhelming guilt for contributing to her father's stroke.

The author does a great job showing Eleanor as she struggles to feel good enough and to finally face her fears head-on. Also, readers sense the horror Eleanor feels when she finds out the tragic fate of not only her relatives in Europe but all Jewish people.

The romantic angle felt rushed and took away from an otherwise engaging portrayal of a teen during WWII. The story sped up and I felt came to a too-quick resolution.

Overall, this fast-paced novel brings light to the voice of the many women who contributed during WWII.

Riveting historical set during WWII and a teen who helps during the war effort.

In this incredible historical fiction novel, readers travel to World War II America where they encounter teenager Eleanor, a math genius from Philadelphia who lacks confidence in her skills. Worried about her Jewish family in Europe, Eleanor is recruited by the US Army to do math -- using the skills she has always tried to hide from everyone -- for the war effort. Bringing her across the country from Philadelphia to California and the Pacific theater, readers get to explore a woman’s life behind the front lines in the weapons development side of the American war effort during World War II. Eleanor is a fantastic heroine, and watching her grow in confidence and skill over the course of the novel is particularly enjoyable and empowering. With a host of powerful female side characters that interact with Eleanor at various points during the novel, fans of the women’s historical fiction genre and the World War II historical fiction genre are sure to enjoy this book. Gordon has clearly done her research for this novel, and readers are sure to enjoy the incredible detail, varied settings, complex heroine, well-developed side characters, and the high stakes of this excellent World War II historical fiction novel.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

As WWII is waging, Eleanor worries for her Jewish family in Poland and wants to help the war effort. She has spent her life hiding her math prowess but learns that she has the necessary skills to help and is eventually recruited by the US Army.

Eleanor is a fantastic character with a great character arc. She goes from being a “Nervous Nellie” to a confident and capable young woman. I really enjoyed the other characters that she encounters on her journey. I liked how even though there was a romance, it wasn’t at the forefront of the story and Eleanor remained focused on her own journey.

While some of the story is based on real life events--women helping the war effort by serving as human computers and running ballistics, some of the plot, especially at the end, seems far-fetched and unrealistic. The descriptions of the mathematics involved went over my head, but it was easy enough to skim over and gave insight into how Eleanor’s mind worked.

I think teen and tween fans of historical fiction will really enjoy this.

In the new book “Trajectory," readers are immersed in the gripping tale of seventeen-year-old Eleanor, whose mathematical career unfolds amidst the turmoil of World War II. Unlike her namesake Eleanor Roosevelt, she grapples with self-doubt and uncertainty about her place in the world. As the war drags on and her Jewish relatives in Europe face peril and uncertainty, Eleanor's worries intensify.

A chance encounter lets Eleanor display her remarkable talent in mathematics, a skill she has kept hidden. Eleanor’s father himself was a famous mathematics professor who suffered a stroke that Eleanor blames herself for. Since that day she saw her father collapse while reaching to collect a toy for Eleanor, Eleanor tells herself the store was her own fault.

Eleanor finds herself recruited by the US Army to work on a top-secret project aimed at aiding America's war efforts. Entrusted with a daunting task, she embarks on a mission that could alter the course of history and potentially save her family and many other Jewish families in Poland. While life becomes intensely challenging on a desolate Army Base, Eleanor finds herself lonely as she cannot share her mission with her family or friends.

"Trajectory" gives a fictional look at the experience of young women who supported the United States Army using their math skills. The author does a phenomenal job setting the scene in the Muroc Army base a truly desolate place in which the Army was aircraft testing and pilot training.

I thought Eleanor was very relatable as a young woman who is dealing with the uncertainty of nearly everything during a time of war. Not being in touch with her cousin and family in Poland is a huge source of concern and while readers know what happened to the Jewish population in Poland during the war, Eleanor and her family grapple with not knowing if their relatives are safe or not.

I also appreciated that the book didn’t focus on a romance for Eleanor and even though she connects with a handsome pilot, her focus on math and her mission is always at the forefront of the plot. Some of the math calculations and descriptions are a bit hard to follow, especially when Eleanor imagines the math unfolding in her head. Ultimately “Trajectory” captures the determination of young people using their skills to fight fascism during the darkest times during World War II.

Trajectory made my day. I devour every WW2 historical fiction story that I can. What makes Trajectory special to me is the importance of mathematics within the story. Making the story even better was the women that the military relied on to do the mathematics to assist in developing the accuracy of rockets and bombs.

Eleanor, the main character, may have looked up to Eleanor Roosevelt for inspiration. But Eleanor, who is just 17, when she goes to work at the PCS, should be an inspiration to girls everywhere. She sees math. she is a human mathematics computer. She steps up when most women would run the other way. Because of her, Bomb accuracy was improved.

Trajectory has a lot of drama. Eleanor has kept her math abilities a secret. She is riddled with guilt over her father, a mathematician's stroke. She doesn't think she deserves the ability and has hidden it away. When she learns that her ability can actually help her parents financially she joins nine other women at the University of Pennsylvania.

The story illustrates the struggles that Jewish Americans had during the war. Eleanor experienced prejudice for her faith as she struggled with the knowledge that her relatives were being massacred; by the Nazis. It also tells the story of the black girl that shouldn't be able to succeed in a white person's world. Alyce's strength was inspirational.

Eleanor's adventures were an eye opener. To think the government thought nothing of sending Eleanor across country to solve a problem with the Norden equipment. At least they chose the right woman for the job. Her adventures will take the reader into the Pacific Theater where men will learn that they have to rely on a female in order to survive and complete their mission.

Trajectory was a thrilling read. I never knew what would be happening next. I didn't know what to expect. Eleanor, and the other girls successes made for a lovely read.

Eleanor is a seventeen-year-old secret math prodigy growing up in a Jewish family in the US with many members still living in Poland during World War II. She unwillingly earned the nickname Nervous Nellie from her timid personality but when her ability to understand math far beyond her years is revealed, she is recruited for a top-secret mission to help the Allies and her family.

This story, while fictional, sheds light on the story of how many women used their intelligence to help the Allies win the war. Eleanor is first recruited to compute data that will eventually help the Allies improve the aim of their weapons and better their outcomes in battle. They are essentially taking into account many different factors, such as wind speed, weather, atmosphere, etc. to figure out the exact trajectory a weapon will take. It takes Eleanor from Philadelphia to California, Pearl Harbor, and eventually even to battle in the South Pacific. She meets so many interesting people along the way, many of which are based on real people and events.

Eleanor’s growth throughout this book has an amazing trajectory of its own. She goes from such a timid girl hiding her own intelligence to a strong young woman who turns her fear into her strength. I love math myself and while I didn’t understand everything, I was excited to see so many women using their intelligence to solve problems many people wouldn’t even consider. There were so many emotions throughout this book and it was so well written. This was truly a new and fresh story from World War II that people should know about.

Trajectory presents the enthralling story of a high school math whiz who becomes instrumental in US military success in the Pacific through a well-paced plot and a credible and authentic protagonist who will inspire, frustrate, and engage readers.

Eleanor Schiff is finishing high school in the first days of US involvement in WWII, but she has been fighting her own internal war since she was six. That's when her father suffered a stroke and she began blaming herself for everything he lost, his brilliant math genius at the top of the list. So she hides her own mathematical genius, faking her way through school until a chance event reveals her skills to Mary Mauchly who is forming an all-female team of mathematicians to work out the computations that will help American troops land bombs accurately. While she loves the work, she has to learn to overcome her lack of confidence and shyness, become a part of a team, and make friends who see her for her true abilities and gifts. Her talents take her from Philadelphia to California and eventually to Hawaii, but she is still running from her past, her guilt over her father's stroke, and the trauma she sustained from it. When pressure builds and a pilot makes the connection between her and her father, she can no longer run from the fight, but she isn't sure she will be the same person once the dust settles.

Eleanor is a realistic character who carries the flaws and strengths of a real person. Her unwillingness to reveal her talents to her family or share her family with others show how deep her trauma goes, and her mathematical skills will inspire and amaze readers and may nudge them to seek out the true stories of the women who participated in these historic computations. The story's plot is engaging, well-paced, and has the stakes to maintain readers' interest. The only elements that lack credibility are Eleanor's ability to move out of her home, travel across the continent, and participate in classified operations without her parents' knowledge or consent.

Overall. Trajectory is a fascinating story with a character-building protagonist who faces heavy problems with courage and perseverance that her "guardian angel," Eleanor Roosevelt, would applaud.

While my brain doesn't work this way, and I really just had to gloss over all the math included in the text, I love the idea of STEM integrated into young adult fiction, depicting women in STEM throughout history. This WW2 read features Eleanor, a high school student who is recruited by the military for her intelligence. I really didn't believe some of the things that happened in the story could be real, but there is a historical note at the end that talks all about the human computers and the tasks they performed, which was fascinating! This is a great addition to any middle school class library, or for lower-level high school readers who are interested in history.

I am all for girls in STEM and historical fiction, which is what drew me to Trajectory (well, that and the GORGEOUS cover). As someone whose parent has suffered a stroke, I empathized greatly with the main character, Eleanor, and wanted her to succeed. I kept reading because I had to know how her story ended. As well, I actually enjoyed seeing the math on the page. Some people may find it boring, but I felt it added to the story and gave us a glimpse into Eleanor’s mind.

Trajectory definitely skews towards the younger end of YA (13-14), which I wasn’t expecting. I don’t want to knock this book for skewing younger, but the quality of storytelling was not up to par with other YA historical fiction I’ve read. There was lots of introspection that made the story feel stagnant. I had a difficult time feeling grounded in the narrative simply because of all the telling rather than showing. In terms of appropriate content, I would confidently put this book in the hands of young teens, but older teens might be bored.

My other critique is the believability of what exactly Eleanor is tasked to do at the end of the book by the US military. I read the author’s note which provides the historical context. Yes, women were recruited as human computers for the PCS and one was even selected to run ballistics at the Muroc base. Those parts of Eleanor’s story were fascinating! Beyond that though, the author kept upping the stakes to the point that it felt ridiculous. I won’t spoil the plot, but let’s just say I had to suspend my disbelief for the ending to have any emotional catharsis.

Trajectory certainly has good bones, but it I feel it could benefit from another round of editing.

Thank you to Scholastic and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Trajectory. While I did enjoy this WWII-set, female-focused novel, I just felt that it was missing a little bit of the magic that would make it a standout. All of the parts were there, but there was just something missing.

However, I liked Eleanor's growth as a character, though I thought her total willingness to undergo the trial she does near the end of the book was a bit of a hairpin turn. I liked the bit of romance and the perspective of an American Jew during the war. In a landscape where there aren't a ton of books that feel right for middle school students, this one hits the mark, which gives it a place on my order list for my library.

3.5 stars
Eleanor has become somewhat of an expert at keeping secrets, in her seventeen years. She’s never revealed the guilt she feels about her father’s stroke that happened when she was six. It took away his brilliant “math brain”, so Eleanor has never let her unusual math abilities surface in front of others. Now, her math skills are desperately needed by her country to help defeat the Japanese in WW2, which could weaken Germany’s plans to eliminate the Jewish population. Eleanor is Jewish, and has relatives suffering in a Polish ghetto; could revealing her abilities in math be a chance to save them?
Very interesting historical fiction about WW2, on a lesser-known topic. The mathematical formulas and computations were confusing for me (I do not possess a “math brain” like Eleanor’s!). It was still well-worth the reading, though; a must for historical-fiction lovers.

This book was great! I loved the feminist themes! It was so cool to see a female leading and surpassing the men in math, a field that is usually very male-dominated. I thought it was super interesting to learn about what things were like for a female serving in WW2.