In celebrating six women from history who loved math and used it to pursue passions like astronomy and hospital care, the oceans and statistics, Jeannine Atkins offers stories in verse about their lives, including the challenging paths each traveled because they were female. Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet and have it named after her and the first to receive a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society. It was more than a century, however, that Vera Rubin, another whose story is told by Jeannine, was awarded the second medal. Thus lies the stories of girls loving math, but expected to stay with housework, marriage, and motherhood, not to carry on their research into questions that arise from their curiosity, whether through microscopes or by tending to war-wounded soldiers. I enjoyed the poetic words as the stories unfolded. Caroline Herschel's brother took her in as his assistant in his "celestial" research. (She also felt beholden to do the housework!) As he began to teach her more mathematics, Jeannine writes: "William begins where many teachers end, pushing so she's caught in thickets and thorns." These girls, then women, worked hard to understand those 'thickets', often going without notice, often having men put their own bylines on articles published. Perhaps you will remember Katherine Johnson's story from the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly? In part of her story, we read of her preparing charts "for meetings that women aren't allowed to attend".
Many moments show the persistence of the women in this book, the hurdles and the accomplishments of leaping over them. Although some things have changed, roads are often still rocky. Look at the news and the talk about Kamala Harris being only the third woman nominated for vice-president as if it's a milestone to be celebrated. In one way it is, yet after reading this book, I wonder why hurdles continue to be placed on so many paths for woman. It's a great book for young girls to know what's gone before, who they might count on for their own push to follow their passions. Sometimes it will only be themselves!
More information is added at the back about each woman along with a brief author's note. I would place this in the hands of every middle-grade reader, believe it would bring great conversation if used as a read-aloud. It's a terrific book!
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