Customer Reviews

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream (Jane Addams Honor Book (Awards))

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a 7th grade teacher, and my students can always tell when I'm reading an especially good book during our sustained silent reading time. I'm a reader who wears her literary heart on her sleeve and I'm not always quiet about it. The kids heard me gasping in shock as I read Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES, laughing out loud at Erin Dionne's MODELS DON'T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES, and most recently, grumbling with indignation as I read Tanya Lee Stone's latest work of nonfiction for middle grade readers, ALMOST ASTRONAUTS: 13 WOMEN WHO DARED TO DREAM.

Known informally as the Mercury 13, these women were the best of the best: pilots who had earned their wings and wanted more. They fought to prove they were just as qualified to be astronauts as the men being trained by NASA, and they had test data to support that argument. ALMOST ASTRONAUTS tells the story of why they never made it into space - a story that serves as a shocking reminder of how deeply ingrained sexism was in American society in the early 1960s.

This book is loaded with compelling details, from vivid descriptions of the testing and training these women endured to media reports from the time period that illustrate just the kind of bias that kept the women out of space in the end. Modern students reading this account will be intrigued by the historical and scientific details, outraged at the attitudes of the powerful people who put up roadblocks for the women who might have been America's first female astronauts, and inspired by the manner in which these women paved the way for others.

Every school year, I'm able to choose just a few books that our full team reads together in class. These books are so well-written that I'm willing to read them out loud four times over the course of a few weeks. They have to be important books, amazing books that I know will capture every student's imagination. ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is one of those books for this year, and I can't wait to share it with my kids.

Tanya Stone's well-researched and faithfully recorded "Almost Astronauts" describes a small footnote in history during the early years of our country's astronaut program. For those who weren't adults in 1961, or rather, female adults in 1961, the era of women aspiring to traditionally "male" jobs reveals surprisingly ugly politics and prejudices - NASA notwithstanding. Although I wasn't as active in the women's movement as some others, I commend their grit and applaud Ms Stone's passion for the story and her special talent in telling it.

Yours for accurate history, Gene Nora Jessen, one of the 13

Jim Oberg's negative review makes some excellent points that do not diminish my admiration for this book, which echoes what the starred reviews in major publications have said.

I think Oberg's follow-up comments in the discussion of his review, rather than the briefer review itself, add quite a bit to the discussion of this excellent book for young readers.

Oberg's comments illuminate the paradox that is LBJ. Then-Vice-President Johnson was nothing if not pragmatic, which is why he was later successful getting civil rights laws passed, but he could be blunt and even vicious in his language. The pragmatic LBJ recognized that making special accommodations for women would lead to other groups asking for the same thing.

But when he said that, he used the language of the bigots who were all too commonly in positions of political power, and it is easy to conclude that he, himself, was a bigot. Oberg makes me reconsider whether Tanya Lee Stone's interpretation was correct, or whether we need a little more nuance to understand Johnson. After all, later in his career Johnson became the president who pushed for and signed some remarkable civil rights legislation.

And when you follow Oberg's review's link to his 2007 article about women space craft commanders, you will see that he admires women in space and the contribution of pioneers like the ones in Stone's book.

He seems to me to be a historian who is arguing for nuance. As an author of books for the same age range as this one, I know that it is not always easy to include such nuances. So I am sympathetic to both Stone's work and Oberg's comments. On my scienceshelf(dot)com review page for Almost Astronauts, I have added links to two of Oberg's articles, which I suggest as supplemental reading to the book.

Fred Bortz, author of Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Planetary Astronomer Heidi Hammel
Beyond Jupiter (Women's Adventures in Science)

My granddaughter has decided to become an astronaaut. I selected this book for her because I think it's important for her to read about those who went before her. She is someone who is comfortable with hersef and having a career goal at 10 years of age is admirable. This book will only add to her confidence and knowledge.

Women were considered to be "cheaper" to send to space - but they couldn't pass the requirements to allow them into the program. There were several women who desperately wanted to be allowed into space. NASA refused. Men underwent strenuous testing that women couldn't possibly endure. Except that they did. With one man behind the idea - he tested Jerrie Cobb in secret. She knew that she had to be tough; she never complained and furthermore she excelled at the tests. Twenty-four other women were tested - half of them passed. But they were told by NASA and the government that women would not be accepted into the space program. For one reason: they did not preform the requirements. The requirement (waived for John Glenn) consisted of flying for the army - an option only available to men. NASA did not change the rule until 20 years later. By that time, it was too late for the Mercury 13 to pursue their dreams. But they watched other women lead men into space; it was both bittersweet and a long time coming.

I had never heard of this story before; it was a real eye opener. I devoured this book. It was amazing. I've never been so interested in space before. I loved hearing about the secret cover-ups and shocking tales from NASA. The history combined with personal tales and dreams from the Mercury 13 made for a very powerful and emotional read

I had to read this book in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I found it inspiring, to say the least. The struggle of these thirteen women reflects the struggle of all those who have dreams which are out-of-sync with the age in which they happen to live, and I loved the way the historical and political backgrounds of the time were woven into the narrative. Reading about the specific requirements of the tests themselves added so much as did the photographs. All in all, a great read!

It's unfair to judge this book based upon political prejudices or perceived anti-woman bias. This is a truly great read about outstanding women, who, unfortunately, did not meet the technical criteria to become astronauts. Another great read about the early astronaut program, The Right Stuff (Thomas Wolfe) spends a great deal of time talking about the inequities surrounding passing over Chuck Yeager, who also, despite being one of the best test pilots around, did not meet the technical requirements to be an astronaut.

This is an eye-opening, gripping 130-page book about a group of women who had already broken gender barriers in flight, and who showed they were capable of going into space -- but were denied that dream. In the course of her research, author Tanya Lee Stone developed personal relationships with the women she was writing about. In fact, she became so involved with this project that she took flying lessons herself. Stone's passion for her subject really comes through in this book.

This is a fantastic book to get girls (and boys) interested in science and flight. I've included it in my online Gender Equality Bookstore.

In the early 1960s, a group of women dubbed the "Mercury 13" successfully completed a grueling set of psychological and physical tests in a private program designed to explore if women were as qualified as men to become astronauts. Led by Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass all the tests, their performance in these tests equaled or surpassed that of the male astronauts hired by NASA and clearly demonstrated that women were physically capable of working in this capacity. The bigger challenge proved to be the struggle to change prevailing attitudes and convince the United States government that women had the right to become astronauts.

Despite an extremely well-organized and persistent lobbying campaign, their proven qualifications, and high-level connections (the group of 13 included the wife of a senator), Ms. Cobb and her colleagues failed to gain admission into NASA's official astronaut training program. Their political efforts could not overcome intense opposition stemming from the condescending coverage in the media, stonewalling from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (he famously scribbled "Let's stop this now!" on a memo about women in NASA), and damaging testimony from a renowned but resentful female pilot at a key Congressional hearing. It took almost two more decades before women gained admission into NASA's training program.

With its meticulous research, appealing display of photographs, and crisp writing, Almost Astronauts provides both an interesting and informative account of women's efforts to shatter existing gender norms and enter into a highly non-traditional occupation in aeronautics. In doing so, the book provides a useful overview of important issues in the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and aviation history. Given its appeal to younger readers, the book has the potential to increase pressure for continued changes that support the advancement of women in the sciences.

When I was ten, I wanted to be an astronaut. I checked out books from my local library, I worked hard in my science classes, I visited the Kennedy Space Center, and I read a lot of science fiction so that if I ever ran into aliens on my mission to Mars, I'd be prepared. Reading this book made me realize how lucky I was to have grown up in an atmosphere where the abilities of women were respected more or less regardless of their gender. The same year I turned ten, Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.

But back in the 1960s, aspiring women had no such role models; if they wanted young girls to understand that it was possible for women to perform just as well as men, they would have to become the models for future generations. In this book, Stone tells the story of the "Mercury 13," a group of thirteen women who fought tooth and nail for entrance into the space program decades before NASA let any women in. The combination of clear prose, firm social and historical grounding, and the detail-oriented nature of this account had me hooked from the beginning, opening a window into the history of women in space.

Stone portrays her facts convincingly, utilizing quotes from contemporary media sources like newspapers and magazines along with first-person narratives from the women involved and historical photographs. This combination of sources makes the experience of reading this book visceral, something you feel in your gut. This was particularly evident to me in the chapters where Stone describes in a play-by-play manner the physical and psychological tests that the Mercury 13 underwent in order to prove that they were just as capable as men. For a moment, I felt like I was in that isolation tank, or battling with my first experience of zero-gravity.

Throughout my reading, my emotions oscillated between shock at the unbelievable attitudes toward women that prevented the Mercury 13 from ever seeing space and horror at the realization that these events had occurred less than fifty years ago and are still supported to this day by a vocal minority. Although at times it was difficult even to imagine the level of discrimination that these women faced, Stone makes it quite clear that these women had the kind of boldness and courage borne of intelligence and self-respect that allowed them to continue fighting against these obstacles.

ALMOST ASTRONAUTS tells a story of courage against the odds, but also of a desire to expand beyond horizons, from the boundary of Earth's atmosphere to the assumed boundaries between genders. It makes a good source for a research report, but the clean and clear writing style makes it much more interesting and easy to follow than the average non-fiction work. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in space and the people allowed to go there.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard