Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

A Bibliography

Stone, Tanya Lee. Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream. Candlewick Press. 2009. ISBN # 978-0-7636-3611-1.

B. Plot/Summary

Story of what 13 women had to go through to try to become astronauts when women were not accepted into that industry.

C. Critical Analysis

The accuracy for this book seems to be highly acceptable. Tanya Lee Stone has cited many sources, with many of them being interviews with the women who wanted to be part of the space program. Additionally, Stone used many primary documents that are stored at Texas Woman's University. She did a great job in making sure that there isn't any stereotyping, especially difficult with such a topic of obvious sexual discrimination.

The organization is chronlogical and easy to understand. The description of each authentic photograph helps the reader to connect to the women.

The design of the cover and title would definately help children pull the book off the shelf and intice them to want to read the book. I really like how each open set of pages contains at least one photograph or political cartoon to help illustrate the uniqueness of this situation. Additionally, all the photos also help break up all the information that the reader is going to take in.

Stone is obviously passionate and enthusiastic about this topic and passes that feeling to the readers. She intrigues the reader into asking "why?" and "where are these women now?" The wording is easy to understand for most students. However, there is A LOT of information and this book would be better for older students.

D. Awards/Review Excerpts

2010 Siebert Medal Award Winner

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Honor

Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor

NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor

Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "This empowering, impassioned story will leave readers inspired."

The Horn Book (starred review) "Meticulously researched and thrillingly told."

E. Connections

*other books about women in space

Women in Space by Carole S. Briggs

Women Who Dared: American Female Test Pilots, Flight-Test Engineers, and Astronauts 1912-1996 by Yvonne C. Pateman.

*other books by Tanya Lee Stone

Diana, Princess of the People

America's Top Ten Construction Wonders

The Good, The Bad, The Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us (Coming in October according to the author's website)