Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

Description: Reaching for the Moon by Katherine Johnson "The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11"-- FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 "This rich volume is a national treasure." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Captivating, informative, and inspiring...Easy to follow and hard to put down." -School Library Journal (starred review) The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11.As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with the support of a professor who saw great promise in her. But ability and opportunity did not always go hand in hand. As an African American and a girl growing up in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges. Still, she lived her life with her fathers words in mind: "You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you." In the early 1950s, Katherine was thrilled to join the organization that would become NASA. She worked on many of NASAs biggest projects including the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon. Katherine Johnsons story was made famous in the bestselling book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. Now in Reaching for the Moon she tells her own story for the first time, in a lively autobiography that will inspire young readers everywhere. Author Biography Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) was a former NASA mathematician whose work was critical to the success of many of their initiatives, including the Apollo program and the start of the Space Shuttle program. Throughout her long career she received numerous awards, including the nations highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Barack Obama. Review "Johnsons writing is clear, warm, and candid, and she smoothly weaves in details about Plessy v. Ferguson, the Ku Klux Klan, Emmett Till, etc., to give context for her-and her familys-personal experiences with segregation and racism. Humble and inspiring." -- The Horn Book "In this most authentic, highly personal account, Katherine writes her own story at the age of 100! . . . Katherines intelligent, softly confident voice helps readers get to know her personally. Johnson makes her own story available for tweens, hoping to inspire the next generation to always do their best." -- School Library Connection "Alternately warmly personal and coolly observant, Johnson is always clear in her explanations. Black-and-white photos illustrate this highly accessible memoir by a groundbreaking woman." -- Publishers Weekly "[Johnsons] loose narrative style feels conversational, which will draw in readers, and an interesting afterword compares the movie Hidden Figures to her actual experience. . . . Kids will be excited to learn more about her journey." -- Booklist * "Johnsons story is captivating, informative, and inspiring. She neatly and accurately weaves in significant historical events that had profound effects on our country and the African American community, including the murder of Emmett Till, lunch counter sit-ins, and school integration. Larger ideas such as white supremacy are broken down with ease for younger readers. . . . Johnsons story is easy to follow and hard to put down. Highly recommended for purchase in any school library." -- School Library Journal, starred review * "Johnson artfully weaves in the heart of how African American communities have survived and advanced-through "self-help and sacrificing" for the next generation. Her writing style is comfortable and conversational, like a visit over tea that you wish would never end. From a long-lived American legend, this rich volume is a national treasure." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review Review Quote "Johnsons writing is clear, warm, and candid, and she smoothly weaves in details about Plessy v. Ferguson, the Ku Klux Klan, Emmett Till, etc., to give context for her--and her familys--personal experiences with segregation and racism. Humble and inspiring." Excerpt from Book Reaching for the Moon CHAPTER 1 Its not every day you wake up with a mission on your mind, but I had a mission and I was determined to accomplish it. Except for the sound of Mama humming and the clinking of dishes as she washed them in the sink, the house was quiet. Moments earlier Daddy had left for work and my brothers and sister had set off to school. As I sat at the kitchen table still fiddling with my oatmeal, I couldnt get my brother Charlie out of my mind. I kept revisiting the scene at the kitchen table the night before, when hed struggled with his math homework. First Mama had tried to assist him with it. Back before shed had Horace, Margaret, Charlie, and me, she had been a teacher. She should have been able to help him figure out his schoolwork. But the way he had slumped over onto one elbow had signaled that he was feeling frustrated. "Sit up straight," Mama had told him, and he did. Horace and Margaret were steadily scribbling away at their assignments, apparently unbothered by Charlies challenges. "Maybe you can explain it better than I can, Josh," Mama said to Daddy, who was sitting in the front room reading the White Sulphur Sentinel, our towns newspaper. Daddy loved to read the paper. He also read the almanac. Mama adored us, but she was very orderly and from time to time she could be a bit strict. Our father was a little more relaxed. My parents, Joshua and Joylette Coleman. Daddy set the paper down and slowly unfurled himself from his favorite chair. More than six feet tall, he towered above most everyone. "Lets see what we can do here, Son," he said, sitting down and scooting closer to his youngest son, the chair scraping loudly across the oak floor. Daddy put his left arm around Charlie, who leaned into him. "I cant figure it out," Charlie said, his lack of confidence evident in his voice. "Yes, you can," Daddy told him. "We just have to explain it so that you get it. Once you understand the background of any idea, you can figure any problem out for yourself." Daddys personality could be more comforting than Mamas. Numbers were also Daddys strength. He may have had only a sixth-grade education, but he was really good with figures. Envisioning things was one of his strong points. He was so good that he could look at an entire oak, pine, or even a chestnut tree, and tell you how many logs it would yield once it had been cut down. We even lived in a home he had built for us. Charlie was two years older than me, but for some reason he seemed to be a little slow. At least, thats what I thought back then. I would be well into adulthood before I discovered that the issue wasnt that he was slow. The truth of the matter was that I was fast. It turned out that I was very gifted in math. Math had always come easily to me. I loved numbers and numbers loved me. They followed me everywhere. No matter what I did, I was always finding something to count: the floorboards, the cracks in the sidewalk, the trees as I walked by, the train cars stacked with timber and those piled with coal that lumbered along the edge of our town each day. The number of times the train engineers blew the whistle as they traveled through the trees, echoing off the granite bedrock that rose above us and formed the valley within which our town, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was nestled. Me at age two with my brothers and sister. That was just the way that my mind worked. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight forks. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight plates. One, two, three serving spoons. Mama was very well organized, but my mind took her sense of order one step further. I always knew how many of everything there were. Things were there and could be counted and accounted for, so thats what I did. So when Charlie found it hard to understand numbers, it really bothered me. And it disturbed me even more when he didnt understand even after both Mama and Daddy had tried to teach them to him. At that point I decided to take things into my own hands. And that was why, even though I was only four years old, I told my plan to Mama, then walked out the front door, then four steps across the porch, eight steps down the front stairs, and five steps down the front walk, and set off toward the school. As I marched out of our front yard and turned onto the sidewalk, I waved at Mrs. Hopkins, who was sweeping the front porch of her familys two-story house across our street. Church Street was the center of Colored life in White Sulphur Springs. Back then the same people we now call African American or Black were called Colored or Negro. (Its important not to use those words to describe people today or you will certainly offend them.) I strode slightly uphill past five houses and St. James United Methodist Church, where we worshipped, to the corner of Barton Road. Thats where Church Street ended, as what had been a slight rise suddenly became very steep--too steep to sled after the snow fell. It was covered with maple, sycamore, and pine trees, and during the spring and summer months, grass. About one hundred yards up that hill ran the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway tracks, where black and navy-blue trains with a yellow Cheshire cat painted on them rumbled through town twice daily, morning and evening. The C&O trains carried coal, lumber, and supplies as well as people from the Virginia coast (which was about six hours southeast) northwestward through the Allegheny Mountains, part of the Appalachian mountain range of West Virginia and southern Ohio. The C&O then carried its load over the Ohio River, across that state on into Detroit and other parts of Michigan. Some trains traveled even farther westward into Indiana and on to the growing industrial cities of Gary, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois. A passenger train also rolled through town, carrying not only travelers of modest means but also the well-appointed private coaches that the wealthy magnates of that era owned and used to travel around the country. I turned left onto Barton and followed it one block until I came to a dirt path on my right. About one hundred feet up that path sat the Mary McLeod Bethune Grade School, the white wooden two-room schoolhouse where our towns Colored children were educated. The White children who lived in White Sulphur, as we affectionately called our town, went to the all-White school across town that the Colored students werent allowed to attend. The reason that Colored children and White children went to separate schools dated way back to slavery. Many White people convinced themselves that Colored people were an inferior race and so justified using guns, whippings, beatings, rape, and other violence to enslave Colored people and force them to work for Whites. These attitudes and behaviors were prevalent for many decades after slavery ended, including in education. In its 1857 Dred Scott decision, our nations highest court, the Supreme Court, ruled that Colored people were an "inferior and subordinate class of beings" as compared to Whites. Many White people then used the ruling to justify ongoing efforts to degrade and exploit Colored people. Then, in its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, the Supreme Court legalized "separate but equal" facilities that were segregated by race. But everyone knew that separate also meant unequal. And that is why Mary McLeod Bethune was a two-room school located on a dirt road rather than a paved one like the all-White schools. Despite these considerable obstacles, Colored people fought for our rights and took pride in our achievements. We engaged in self-help, educated ourselves and one another, and fought against laws and racial violence set up to oppress us and keep us "in our place," as many White people described our inferior position in American society. This brings me to Mary McLeod Bethune, a Colored woman born shortly after the end of slavery whose parents had been not only enslaved but also denied a formal education. The only one of her seventeen siblings able to obtain an education, she found knowledge to be so valuable that she shared what she was learning with everyone around her. Shed started teaching others back in the late 1800s. By the time I was born, on August 26, 1918, she was a famous educator and the founder of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls (now Bethune-Cookman University), in Florida. She also helped lead the National Council of Negro Women, an organization focused on uplifting and improving the lives of Negroes by crusading for their rights to a quality education, the ability to vote, job opportunities, safety from racial violence, and more. At the elementary school named in her honor, four grades were housed in each classroom. Mrs. Leftwich taught first through fourth grades in one room. That was the classroom that Charlie was in. Mr. Arter, the principal, taught fifth through seventh in the other, educating Horace and Margaret, whom I called Sister. All totaled there were about twenty children in the first through fourth grades, and there was about the same number of older children. Now, far more Colored children than that lived in White Sulphur Springs, bu Details ISBN1534440836 Author Katherine Johnson Publisher Simon & Schuster Year 2019 ISBN-10 1534440836 ISBN-13 9781534440838 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2019-07-11 Pages 256 Audience Age 10 Imprint Simon & Schuster Subtitle The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Illustrations f-c jacket (spfx: foil stamp, embossing, spot gloss), matte lam; digital DEWEY 510.92 Short Title Reaching for the Moon Language English Audience Children/Juvenile UK Release Date 2019-07-11 NZ Release Date 2019-07-11 US Release Date 2019-07-11 AU Release Date 2019-08-31 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:124801774;

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