Captivating, informative, and inspiringEasy to follow and hard to put down. School Library Journal (starred review)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.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 5th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 10 years.

There are 272 pages in this book. This book was published in 2020 by Simon & Schuster .

Katherine Johnson is a former NASA mathematician whose work was critical to the success of many of their initiatives, including the Apollo Lunar landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program. Throughout her long career she has received numerous awards, including the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Barack Obama.