{"id":40625,"date":"2024-06-10T17:12:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T21:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40625"},"modified":"2024-06-10T17:12:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T21:12:29","slug":"review-of-one-step-further-by-katherine-johnson-illustrated-by-charnelle-pinkney-barlow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40625","title":{"rendered":"Review of One Step Further, by Katherine Johnson, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One Step Further<\/p>\n

My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission<\/em><\/p>\n

by Katherine Johnson
\nwith her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore
\nillustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow<\/p>\n

National Geographic Kids, 2021. 48 pages.
\nReview written January 5, 2022, from my own copy
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a wonderful picture book biography that tells about the groundbreaking life of Katherine Johnson and weaves in the experiences of her three daughters growing up with her example.<\/p>\n

The book uses photographs and artifacts from Katherine\u2019s life to give wonderful visuals, giving a taste of the times. The daughters are pictured with speech bubbles giving commentary on the artifacts and the main text, effectively pulling the reader into the story with child guides.<\/p>\n

Segregation affected Katherine\u2019s life, and it also affected her daughters\u2019 lives. When she moved in order to find a job that used her talents, her children experienced segregation. But I also like that when she became a human computer for NACA, there were many other college-educated African-American women working there (segregated from the white computers). The kids are pictured saying about that:<\/p>\n

Our neighborhood was full of smart and stylish Black women mathematicians. At church, at school pickups, at summer cookouts, in our kitchen.<\/p>\n

They took such pride in their jobs and looked so perfect every day. We didn\u2019t know quite what they did, but we wanted to be like them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The theme of \u201cone step further\u201d is carried through the book, as Katherine continued to push to go one step further. Her daughter Kathy also went one step further by participating in sit-ins to protest racial segregation.<\/p>\n

The book progresses through to Katherine\u2019s important work on the moon launch and how John Glenn asked Katherine to check the math of the mechanical computer before he was willing to take off.<\/p>\n

I like the page at the back that tells how NASA named a building and then an entire facility after Katherine. It also tells how her daughters followed in her footsteps, with one working for NASA and the other two working as teachers.<\/p>\n

There are ten pages of detailed historical notes after the main story, so older kids intrigued by this can learn how they can find out more. This biography is put together in a wonderfully inviting package.<\/p>\n

natgeo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Step Further My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission by Katherine Johnson with her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow National Geographic Kids, 2021. 48 pages. Review written January 5, 2022, from my own copy Starred Review Here\u2019s a wonderful picture book biography that tells about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,11,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40625"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43902,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40625\/revisions\/43902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}