Title: Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician
Katherine Johnson
Author: Katherine Johnson
Read
by: Heather
Alicia Simms
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Audio
Length:
Approximately 5 hours and 18 minutes
Source:
Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.
Thank-you!
I
read and loved Hidden Figures a few years ago and also loved the movie. I was delighted to be able to listen to and
review the audiobook version of Katherine Johnson’s autobiography. I was sad to learn of her passing last week,
but inspired to finish this audiobook.
Katherine
Johnson was a mathematically gifted girl.
Through her parents’ hard work and sacrifices, they were able to put Katherine
and her three siblings through both high school and college in West Virginia in
the 1930s. This was quite the feat for
the time. None of my Grandparents or
Great-Grandparents attended college. While
at school, it was noticed that Katherine was gifted. She graduated from high school at 14 and
college at 18. One of my favorite quotes
in the book is when Katherine believes her brother was “slow” as he graduated at
the normal ages. She realized as an
adult that her brother was actually quite smart. Katherine tells the story of her marriage,
children, working as a teacher, and eventually of her working at NACA, which
eventually became NASA. She had a love
for analytical geometry and was able to use that passion to help ultimately to put
a man on the moon.
Katherine
Johnson’s story was fascinating and uplifting.
I read every biography in my school library when I was in elementary and
middle school. Most women biographies
were about wives of famous men, there were only wo about African American
ladies (Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth), and there were none about
mathematicians. I am an engineer myself. I sure wish I would have had this autobiography
to read as a child. Johnson talks about
her love for math and about her persistence and hard work to be able to be in
the profession that suited her. I loved her
father’s motto that became Katherine’s own, “you aren’t better than anyone, but
no one is better than you.” Johnson also
talks about race relations in America and how it impacted her life. It was an important story and one that I
think everyone should read.
This
book was written for middle school aged kids, but I enjoyed it as an
adult. My 11-year old son, Daniel, used the
book as one of his resources for a poster he did for school about Katherine
Johnson. She is an inspiring role
model. It’s really made me think about
how many women and minorities were part of major parts of history, but their
roles were overlooked and not put into our history textbooks. Heather Alicia Simms was the narrator and to
me was the voice of Katherine Johnson.
Overall,
Reaching for the Moon is an important part of our American history and is an
important autobiography. I loved this
audiobook and only wish we had a second part for more of Katherine
Johnson’s
life after the mission to the moon. I
did love her epilogue.
Katherine Johnson was such an amazing person, wasn't she?
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteThis autobiography sounds fascinating. Like you, I really enjoyed reading biographies when I was in school--and I still do! Excellent review!
She was an amazing person - I was so happy to read about her.
ReplyDelete