Rebekah Reads: Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race Book Review January 31, 2021

 Hidden Figures:
The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

 About the Book

 Title: Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black   Women and the Space Race 
 Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
 Illustrator: Laura Freeman 

 Reading Level: Ages 6-9, middle to upper-elementary
 Lexile Level: 980L

 Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine   Johnson, and   Christine Darden were good at math...really good.

 They participated in some of NASA's greatest successes, like   providing the calculations for America's first journeys into space.   And they did so during a time when being black and a woman  limited what they could do. But they worked hard. They persisted. And they used their genius minds to change the world (Scholastic).

My Thoughts
This book was purchased to build the library STEAM collection. I was already familiar with the account of these women working for NASA from research with someone else and from the movie. Hidden Figures provides a clear introduction to the careers of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Dr. Christine Darden and laws that brought the end of segregation. 
I appreciated the short bio of each woman and the glossary at the back of the book.

You and your young readers will enjoy this book if enjoy any of the following: NASA, space, women's history, black history, women in the sciences, math, computers, engineering, biography, STEAM/ STEM. 

Get your copy here.
This is NOT an affiliate link, I do not make any money from the blog, reviews, or links. I purchased a copy through Scholastic. 

Readability: Five-Finger Test

How do you know if this book is the right reading fit for your young reader? 
I like the five-finger test. Choose a random page in the book, if your reader find 5 or more than 5 words they do not know, it could be too challenging for reading on their own. If that's the case, this would be a good book to read together. 

Vocabulary: Context Clues
What do you do with the words your reader does not know, yet?
When you come to an unfamiliar word, you can keep reading or re-read and ask your reader to tell you what was just read in their own words. Sometimes, telling or re-telling helps a reader use a synonym, then when you ask them, "What does the word orbit mean?" they have already found a synonym to help define the word orbit. 

Learn More

The Morehead Planetarium & Science Center has created a short career biography of Dorothy Vaughan for children. You can watch it here.

Consider reading a little more and recording your own biography of one of these women or someone else who contributed to the space race.