Katherine Johnson
The 121st picture book in the Little People, Big Dreams series introduces us to maths wizard Katherine Johnson, whose excellence with numbers put astronauts on the moon.
The perfect combination of skills, passion, and ambition.
The book opens in West Virginia in the 1920s. Katherine hopscotches along the sidewalk, doing sums for fun while her older brother plays marbles. From morning to night, she thinks about numbers.
Her love for learning and numbers is matched by her incredible prowess. She fast-tracks through school, and becomes an undergraduate at West Virginia State College at just fifteen years old.
…when you find what you love to do, you must give it your all.
In 1953, Johnson joined what is now NASA, and helped plot space flights, proving herself invaluable in a male-dominated workspace. One of those missions was for the Apollo 11 flight: Johnson’s calculations put the first astronauts on the moon - and brought them home again.
Katherine Johnson is a short, inspiring bedtime read. The book is highly-illustrated, with just a sentence or two of text per page. My daughter was glued to the story, and clearly impressed by Johnson’s resilience, ambition, and passion - and her ability to push through the gender and racial barriers of her day. I see why this series is such a success.
The playful artwork throughout is by Jemma Skidmore.
Other pioneering black women in the Little People, Big Dreams series include Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker, Wilma Rudolph, and Amanda Gorman.
Many thanks to series author Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy. I look forward to exploring more in the series.
WHAT TO READ NEXT
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara
