A sharp, revealing look at deeply entrenched institutional sexism.
During the Cold War, 13 highly experienced women aviators proved they had as much of the “right stuff” as male astronauts but were nonetheless excluded from America’s space program.
Within the context of the United States’ space race with the Soviet Union, Siegel tells the infuriating story of how these women were denied opportunities even after excelling at grueling physical and psychological tests. As Tanya Lee Stone did in her Sibert Medal–winning Almost Astronauts (2009), Siegel chronicles how the “Mercury 13” proved to be as courageous, intelligent, and fit as any man. Despite this, they were nonetheless ridiculed and thwarted by everyone from Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the Mercury 7 astronauts, and they were shockingly betrayed by the highly respected woman aviator Jackie Cochran, apparently out of jealousy and spite. Whereas Stone’s narrative focuses on Jerrie Cobb, Siegel includes the experiences of all the women and alternates chapters about the women with those about the Mercury 7. Her focus on their arrogant, boozing, loutish, womanizing behavior and sloppiness on missions puts these men—all white, like the women—in a considerably unheroic light. Disappointingly, this emphasis serves as a distraction from the women’s narrative rather than throwing it into relief. And oddly, given this overall icon-busting approach, Siegel does not reveal Wernher von Braun’s Nazi past when introducing this minor character.
A sharp, revealing look at deeply entrenched institutional sexism. (photos, glossary, notes, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-29015-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic Focus
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
In sports, just as in every other endeavor, women have had to struggle to be accepted, let alone recognized—same as it ever was. Stout profiles five women who pioneered their gender’s place in sports theretofore the exclusive preserve of males. It might have been nearly a century ago, as in the case of swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who swam the English Channel in 1926, and Louise Stokes and Tidye Pickett, America’s first African-American women in the Olympic games (in 1932 and in Berlin’s notorious 1936 venue). More recent pioneers include the jockey Julie Krone, who won the Belmont Stakes in 1993, and Danica Patrick, who won an Indy-car race in 2008. Stout tells their stories with bubbly enthusiasm, exploring the roots of their interest and ably conveying the joy they found in their respective endeavors. Despite the high level of their achievements, he draws them as natural talents, not as freaks of nature. There is much here of perseverance and courage, of training and sacrifice, but what Stout zeroes in on is a moment of triumph, whether it be a checkered flag or breaking the color barrier. Never patronizing, he captures both grit and glory in a fast-paced package that goes down easy even as it inspires. (Collective biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: April 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-41725-7
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Sandpiper
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Hodgman looks back humorously at her 1960s childhood in the Rochester, N.Y., area, recalling incidents that pained her at the time or seem embarrassing in retrospect. There was the way she bragged about her reading before she knew better, the fourth-grade nickname (Hampton Schnoz) bestowed by a classmate she’d asked about her appearance and the total lack of athletic ability that left her at the bottom of the climbing ropes. She includes poems from her “bird sequence,” written in third grade. Not all events are mortifying. Some just reflect what it was like to be young at the time. There is the longed-for Petunia the Climbing Skunk from F.A.O. Schwartz that she didn't get for Christmas, a lovely description of birthday-party entertainments that includes Spiderweb and the Kim Game and the scary school-bus driver who threatened his misbehaving passengers with a rifle. Some anecdotes are very short; others go on for several pages. Occasional photographs of herself and her husband, as well as both their families back to their grandparents, will help readers picture these children from long ago. There is no hint of the larger political turmoil of the time. Rueful, funny and nostalgic, this will ring true to parents and grandparents and may be even more appealing to them than to a child readership—whose impression of the 1960s will be very different. (Memoir. 9-12)
Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8705-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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