Braving sexism, racism, and ableism, and with few support networks in a field dominated by men, many women trailblazers in space science didn\u2019t realize how their discoveries and innovations were interconnected and often simultaneous. These ten nonfiction picture books centering women superstars in space science form a sisterhood of engineers, mathematicians, innovators, and scientists who will motivate young readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer<\/em><\/p>\n by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Natasha Donovan\u00a0<\/p>\n From math-loving kid to rocket designer, Mary Golda Ross broke many barriers as a Cherokee woman in male-dominated fields. Award-winning author and Cherokee Nation citizen Traci Sorell weaves how Cherokee values shaped Mary and her achievements.<\/p>\n During World War II, Mary solved fighter jet design problems. As the only female engineer at Skunk Works\u2013a top-secret think tank\u2013she vaulted space travel from dream to reality. Crafting rockets and penning NASA\u2019s first Planetary Flight Handbook, Mary helped make Apollo\u2019s moon missions possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Counting the Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician<\/em><\/p>\n by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by Ra\u00fal Col\u00f3n\u00a0<\/p>\n As Mary Golda Ross designed rockets, Katherine Johnson calculated spacecraft pathways. Astronaut John Glenn orbited Earth only after knowing that computer machine numbers matched Katherine\u2019s hand calculations. Newbery Honor author Lesa Cline-Ransome incorporates the recurring questions, WHY? WHAT? HOW? to convey Katherine\u2019s curiosity, calculations, and problem-solving. In the book\u2019s final triumph, Katherine ponders how she\u2019ll take astronauts beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere, foreshadowing her impact on Apollo\u2019s moon missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fire of Stars: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of<\/em><\/p>\n by Kirsten W. Larson, illustrated by Katherine Roy\u00a0<\/p>\n In lively language bursting with astronomical descriptors and childhood observations in nature, this powerful, dual narrative parallels the life of a star and star astronomer Cecilia Payne. Their stories collide, forming a single narrative when Cecilia \u201cblazes with that lightning bolt of understanding.\u201d In 1925, unlocking the secret of what stars are made of, Cecilia\u2019s discovery at Harvard\u2019s Observatory stunned astronomers, advancing the new science of astrophysics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rock Star: How Ursula Marvin Mapped Moon Rocks and Meteorites\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n by Sandra Neil Wallace, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter\u00a0<\/p>\n In the same observatory Cecilia calculated the composition of stars, Ursula Marvin changed planetary science. A giant in geology with a passion for exploring, Ursula examined lunar samples from every Apollo mission, making groundbreaking discoveries that re-shaped what scientists know about the moon. The first woman to search for meteorites in Antarctica, Ursula\u2019s team uncovered the first known lunar meteorite. Meeting gender pushback by penning papers on her contributions to science, she soothed self-doubt by journaling and mining her imagination, pretending to be a snowmobile racer riding her beloved machine, Blue Ice.<\/p>\n Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark<\/em><\/p>\n by Allen R. Wells, illustrated by DeAndra Hodge\u00a0<\/p>\n While Ursula Marvin waited on Earth to examine lunar samples astronaut Neil Armstrong collected, the rock box carrying the extra-terrestrial cargo was designed by mechanical engineer Yvonne Clark. Author and engineer Allen R. Wells portrays his former college professor as having the superpower to build and fix things\u2014from her family\u2019s broken toaster as a child, to NASA rockets. In this upbeat biography, Clark discovers what caused Apollo 4\u2019s Saturn V engines to overheat, leading to a successful 1967 test launch and triumphant conclusion to the book.<\/p>\n Women on a Mission: The Remarkable Heroes Who Put Men on the Moon\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Molly Magnell\u00a0<\/p>\n Mechanical engineer and author Suzanne Slade centers a diverse group of twelve women trailblazers in space science who \u201cengineered, welded, calculated, stitched, and plotted\u201d to help launch NASA\u2019s 1969 Apollo 11 mission. Young readers may know about mathematician Katherine Johnson or aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross. Most of the women highlighted who helped Apollo accomplish the first moon landing will likely be unfamiliar, making this an ideal introduction to more female \u201chidden figures\u201d of NASA\u2019s Team Apollo.\u00a0<\/p>\n The High-Flying, Deep-Diving Adventures of Kathy Sullivan: Astronaut and Oceanographer<\/em><\/p>\n by Diane Stanley, illustrated by Jessie Hartland\u00a0<\/p>\n Stories about women who\u2019d made the Apollo mission possible weren\u2019t yet told when teenager Kathryn (Kathy) Sullivan watched Neil Armstrong moonwalk. Yearning to explore space, too, Kathy learned women weren\u2019t allowed to be NASA astronauts. This popular author\/illustrator duo focus primarily on Kathy\u2019s space career, when she did become one of NASA\u2019s first female astronauts in1978. Simulating space flight in water\u2014the geologist\/oceanographer\u2019s favorite place besides space\u2014Kathy became the first American woman to spacewalk, refueling an orbiting satellite in 1983.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ellen Takes Flight: The Life of Astronaut Ellen Ochoa<\/em><\/p>\n by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Oliver Dominguez\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Ten years after Kathy Sullivan\u2019s spacewalk, Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina in space, operating a robotic arm to move satellites. A lifelong learner, the physicist\/engineer played the flute in her university orchestra. Acknowledging the women trailblazers before her by unfurling a suffragist banner in space, what makes this biography unique are details of the ways Ellen amplified the struggles and achievements of other women and how she navigated parenting while guiding the International Space Station and heading NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n How to Hear the Universe: Gaby Gonz\u00e1lez and the Search for Einstein\u2019s Ripples in Space-Time<\/em><\/p>\n by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Sara Palacios\u00a0<\/p>\n Scientist and author Patricia Valdez connects Albert Einstein\u2019s theory that collisions in the universe cause sound waves in space, to Latina physicist Gabriela (Gaby) Gonz\u00e1lez. Determined to prove Einstein\u2019s theory, Gaby listened to giant sound wave machines, identifying known background noises. Then, one hundred years after Einstein\u2019s Theory of Relativity, Gaby detected a gravitational wave. Caused by black holes colliding a billion years ago, the chirp, recorded in 2015, changed space history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wanda Hears the Stars: A Blind Astronomer Listens to the Universe<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n by Amy S. Hansen, Wanda D\u00edaz Merced, illustrated by Rocio Arreola Mendoza\u00a0<\/p>\n World-renowned Puerto Rican astrophysicist Wanda D\u00edaz Merced also used sound to study stars and black holes. Losing her eyesight from diabetes while at university, Wanda turned to sonification to map radio waves in space by hearing what she couldn\u2019t see. Making discoveries at the same observatory that Cecilia Payne and Ursula Marvin had, Wanda\u2014who co-authors her story\u2014journeys farther, advocating for inclusivity and equal access in science and declaring this hard-earned truth: \u201cScience is for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sandra Neil Wallace is a former ESPN reporter and the first woman to host an NHL broadcast on national TV. She writes about trailblazers and is the author of BETWEEN THE LINES: HOW ERNIE BARNES WENT FROM THE FOOTBALL FIELD TO THE ART GALLERY<\/a>, illustrated by Bryan Collier, which won the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction, and MARJORY SAVES THE EVERGLADES<\/a>, a CBC\/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. Sandra\u2019s newest title is the star reviewed ROCK STAR: HOW URSULA MARVIN MAPPED MOON ROCKS AND METEORITES<\/a>, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (Simon & Schuster, A Paula Wiseman Book, OCT 14, 2025).\u00a0Visit Sandra online at SandraNeilWallace.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Braving sexism, racism, and ableism, and with few support networks in a field dominated by men, many women trailblazers in space science didn\u2019t realize how their discoveries and innovations were interconnected and often simultaneous. These ten nonfiction picture books centering women superstars in space science form a sisterhood of engineers, mathematicians, innovators, and scientists who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}