Force of Nature by Ann E. Burg

In Force of Nature, the life of author and scientist Rachel Louise Carson is portrayed in free verse. The story opens sometime around 1917 when Rachel is in fifth grade. With her Mama, Rachel observes the natural world around her with attention and delight; "a beautiful butterfly flit from leaf to leaf."

Rachel lives in Springdale with her Mama and Papa. Her father sells insurance, a disappointing and tedious job that he never planned on taking. She has an sister Marion who is ten years old and a brother Robert. Marian lives as home now after being abandoned by her husband Lee, mere months after getting married.

When Rachel wants to invite her classmate Alice to show her the woods, her Mama tells her to choose her friends wisely lest she end up like her older sister Marion. So Rachel accepts that she can't have friends come to visit. With her dog, Candy, Rachel explores the fields and forests. She loves poetry, especially poems about the sea. Marion finds a job doing bookkeeping while Robert has left to join the Army Air Service.

After a brief illness, Rachel is back in school. Everyone in her class knows someone fighting in Europe. Some have lost relatives in the Battle of Verdun. Meanwhile, Robert is busy transporting bombs on his biplane. His letter relates the story of a Canadian aviator who saved a plane by crawling onto the crushed wing to balance the plane so it could land. Rachel decides she will write a story about this aviator and submit it to the St. Nicholas Magazine. She aspires to be a writer. To encourage her, Rachel's mother leaves her a pocket-sized note book so she can write down the details she notices. Her story is published, five months after submitting it.

Eleven-year-old Rachel is kept home from school as the illness killing soldiers her brother Robert wrote about in his letters, has not spread. The influenza has resulted in limits placed on railroad travel and saloons. Eventually the war ends in the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Rachel continues to have stories published in St. Nicks and becomes an Honor Member of the Saint Nicholas League. Robert returns home from war but seems changed, unable to focus and sleeping most of the time. Rachel's father gets another job working at the power plant but remains unhappy. And Marion is learning Continental Code from Robert and a friend. She has her picture in the paper but the accompanying story is filled with many made-up details about her which puzzles Rachel. Marion marries Burton Williams, a friend of her brother Robert.

Rachel graduates high school and enrolls at Pennsylvania College for Women, fifteen miles from Sprindale. At school, Rachel finds Miss Croff, her freshman composition teacher very supportive. Meanwhile, Marian's marriage to Burton is failing so she moves back home with her daughter Virginia and her new baby Marjorie. At the end of the semester, Robert also comes to visit with his wife Meredith and their baby, Frances. With all these people in their small home, tensions are high. Eventually Mama tells Robert he can pitch a tent in the yard which they do. Everyone can hear quarreling and crying day and night.

With Marian recovering from appendicitis, her young daughters are needy, wanting comfort. So Rachel helps her sister by taking the children outside to show them interesting things in nature. It is Marjie who seems to enjoy nature the most.

In her sophomore year, Rachel will study French, psychology, Introductory Biology and two English courses. She also decides to work on the school newspaper. Rachel has a new roommate named Helen who is younger. Miss Croff continues as Rachel's advisors, but she is impressed by Miss Skinker, her biology professor. She is glamorous and elegant. Miss Skinker is impressed with Rachel's "probing questions" and that she helps her classmates. She impresses upon Rachel that 
"It is not enough

to embrace knowledge

if we are not also willing

to use that knowledge

to benefit the world."

Rachel soon discovers that she really enjoys biology and it is become her favourite subject. She wants to change her major and seeks the guidance of Miss Croff and Miss Skinker. Miss Croff refuses to advise that she change her major. She tells Rachel there is very little opportunity or women in science and suggests instead that she add a minor in science. Miss Skinker also tells Rachel much the same. She indicates she had been turned away from jobs despite being qualified. She wants Rachel to follow her heart but also to succeed. All of this leaves Rachel discouraged with the fear that she will end up like her mother. Her fellow students are puzzled by Rachel's desire to change her major especially considering she is such a good writer. Rachel's attempt to explain to her friends how she feels is met with laughter.

Summer sees Robert, Meredith and Frances move in with Meredith's family. Rachel's papa is often sick and can only tend his garden. Rachel tells her mother that she wants to change her major but like her teachers, her mother doesn't support this change. Rachel returns to college but early in the semester she decides to move forward with the change in her major. Miss Skinker and Miss Croff tell her they will support her in this. Rachel's move to focus on science rather than her writing will eventually pay off in ways no one can anticipate. As Rachel gains experience in the world of science and returns to her writing, she offers the world the opportunity to reconsider the beauty of the natural world and to reconsider how we are trying to tame that world.

Discussion

In Force of Nature, the life of Rachel Carson is fictionalized through the use of free verse. There are no titled poems, but the poetry is interspersed with pages titled Field Note in which Rachel observes the natural world around her. As author Ann E. Burg notes in her Author's Note she "wanted to capture a unique and tenacious spirit" that was Rachel Carson.

Using verse, Burg succeeds in portraying Rachel Carson as an intelligent young woman determined to follow what she truly loved - observing and learning about the natural world we are a part of. In Force of Nature, Rachel is portrayed as not only delighting in the discovering the natural world around her but also in passing that on to those around her, especially her young nieces. Although she begins college studying writing and English, her fascination with the natural world cannot be denied. Despite warnings that studying science would offer few opportunities, Carson persisted, deciding to take an enormous risk. Carson was fortunate to obtain an internship at Woods Hole in Massachusetts and later a position in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, at a time when jobs were rare for women in science. 

And as history now shows, she was able to convey the wonders of the natural world to millions of readers through her books. But  more importantly Rachel Carson was able to use her love and knowledge of the natural world and her science background to warn the world about the indiscriminate use of pesticides. She correctly foresaw that man's desire to conquer nature could have devastating effects for both the world and humanity. Her book, Silent Spring was the birth of the environmental movement. She accomplished what Miss Skinker had encouraged her to do, years earlier - use her knowledge to benefit mankind.

Burg also conveys the difficulties and tragedies in Rachel Carson's own life. Her mother had to give up a teaching career when she married, something that was common in the early twentieth century. Her father was dissatisfied with low-paying jobs that offered little satisfaction. Her siblings also struggled with neither Robert nor Marion completing high school. Robert returned from a war a changed man, like many of his generation. Her sister Marion had a failed marriage. The family struggled financially during the depression, resulting in Rachel postponing her doctorate studies at John Hopkins. Her father also died during this time making their financial situation worse. The niece Rachel was helping died suddenly leaving her son, Roger an orphan. Rachel had ongoing health problems including breast cancer which would claim her life in 1964.

Force of Nature has lovely illustrations created by artist Sophie Blackall using Procreate, a digital 6B pencil, gouache and brushes. At the back of the book, all the illustrations are shown with the caption, "Can you name them all?"  A map showing the important towns and cities relevant to Rachel Carson's life would have been a good addition.

Author Ann E. Burg read Rachel Carson's own works and used Linda Lear's biography, Witness for Nature to help craft Rachel's story in Force of Nature. This novel in verse is a beautiful tribute to a somewhat-forgotten pioneer and scientist in environmental sciences.

Book Details:

Force of Nature by Ann E. Burg
New York: Scholastic Press   2024

278 pp.

June Almeida, Virus Detective! by Suzanne Slade

June  lived in Glasgow, Scotland with her parents and her younger brother, Harry who was just a baby. June loved school because she loved learning. Science was her favourite subject and she loved to share what she learns with her parents and Harry. When June was ten years old, Harry became very sick and died. It was a difficult time for June and her family.

As she grew older, June's passion for science grew. June loved to read science fiction and her easy manner helped her gain many friends. She loved to photograph nature, having a keen eye for details. Unfortunately June's dream of attending university to study science was just a dream. Her family could not afford to send her to school and so she left her studies at age sixteen to help her family financially. 

Instead she got a job in a hospital lab where she used a microscope to examine samples from hospital patients. When her family moved to London, England, June found another job in a hospital lab. In London, she met her husband, Henry. After they married, June and Henry decided to emigrate to Toronto, Canada where she was hired to work in a new research lab. In this lab, June began working with an electron microscope that magnified samples 25,000 X . An electron microscope uses a beam of

electrons to view samples. It is able to create very detailed pictures based on how the electrons behave when they hit the sample. June hoped to obtain clearer images of what she was researching.

To do this she decided to use the electron microscope to take images of viruses surrounded by antibodies. 

In 1960, June gave birth to a baby girl and then eventually returned to her research as well as authoring papers. This led to a job offer from a scientist at a hospital in London, England, so they returned to the city. 

A researcher named David Tyrell asked June if she could investigate what seemed to be a new virus that had given a boy a very bad cold. Using a technique called negative staining to prepare the virus sample, June then put it into the electron microscope. The virus was different from any she'd seen before with tiny dots around it. This virus was similar looking to two other viruses she'd seen from animal samples. June's paper on these viruses years ago had been dismissed, but her work confirmed the existence of a new virus. June and the other doctors decided to call the virus a corona virus because of the crown of dots surrounding it.

Henry wanted to return to Canada but June did not want to give up her work in London. They divorced and June continued working on many different viruses. Her work allowed doctors to develop medicines to help people sick from certain viruses. After retiring from her research, June continued to learn, teaching herself to play the flute and to use a digital camera. 

Discussion

June Almeida, Virus Detective is a timely picture book given the Covid-19 pandemic. June Almeida is virtually unknown, yet she was an accomplished woman researcher and scientist who discovered a new family of viruses, the corona virus. However, SARS, MERS and Covid have all made people across the globe more aware of corona viruses and the severe illness they can cause. It was June Almeida who laid the groundwork for research into these unusual viruses.

June Hart was born in 1930 to Jane and Harry Hart in Glasgow, Scotland. June's younger brother died of diphtheria when he was six years old. June was ten and his death drew June into an interest in science and medicine. June was a good student, passionate enough about science that she won the science prize at Whitehall School. Because she couldn't afford to continue on, June left school at sixteen to work. She trained as a laboratory technician at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. During her time there, she was also able to complete further technical certification. 

June moved to London in 1952 when she was twenty-two years old.She met her first husband, Enrique Rosalio (Henry) Almeida. Their shared love of classical music drew them together and they married in 1954. They emigrated to Canada in 1956 and four years later, June gave birth to her daughter, Joyce. In 1964, the couple returned to London where she found work as an electron microscopist with Professor Waterson at St. Thomas Hospital. Unfortunately, Henry wanted to return to Canada but June's work was beginning to gain recognition and she refused to leave. They divorced in 1967.

June began to realize that she needed a university degree to further her research so she obtained her M.Phil. in 1970 and in 1971 her D.Sc. from the University of London. As Suzanne Slade mentions in this picture book biography, June began using what is called immune electron microscopy to study viruses. 

As time went on and June's reputation grew, David Tyrell , head of the Health Common Cold Research Unit asked June to look at a virus, B814 that he and his team had isolated from school boys who had colds. When June viewed them using the electron microscope she recognized that they were similar to other viruses she had previously seen in mice and chickens. These viruses had "spikey projections" on their surface that gave them the appearance of having a crown or "corona". June considered these a new family of viruses and Almeida, Tyrell and Waterson labelled them as corona viruses. These viruses were mostly ignored for years because they were not believed to cause serious illness. We now know differently.

Slade provides many of the important details of June Almeida's life, a story of determination and resiliency.  Lacking the financial means to obtain the education she would need to work in the field of science, June set out to work in a hospital and gain the experience she needed. Her hard work, attention to detail and abilities soon resulted in better work, opportunities to participate in research and publish papers. Eventually she was able to attend university and get the education she needed to advance in her profession.

Although June made many major contributions to medical science - the use of morphology to classify viruses and discovery of a new family of viruses, the corona virus - were probably her most significant. Readers might wonder what benefit pictures of viruses offered to scientists and medical practitioners. Visualizing a virus helps work out its morphological characteristics and has allows scientists to devise methods of treating persons who are infected. For example,  June's work on the rubella virus, which can cause congenital birth defects, helped doctors understand how the virus interacted with the immune system. Slade writes that "Her pictures helped scientists develop medicines that could attach to viruses and block them from making people sick." 

June Almeida is yet another brilliant woman scientist, in a long list of brilliant women scientists whose stories are being recovered and told to a new generation of girls. Picture books like June Almeida, Virus Detective, serve to inspire young girls,  that careers in science are possible, and that they have significant contributions to make! 

In researching and writing this picture book, Suzanne Slade was able to talk with June's daughter, Dr. Joyce Almeida who answered questions and provided much primary source material. Slade has included a detailed note titled "More About June", a timeline of June Almeida's life, and a Selected Bibliography. The illustrations were created digitally by Elisa Paganelli. 

You can read more about June Almeida's life and her work from the What Is Biotechnology website.

Book Details:

June Almeida, Virus Detective by Suzanne Slade
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Sleeping Bear Press 2021

Patricia's Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight by Michelle Lord

In the late 1940's a young Patricia Bath walked by a man begging in the street in Harlem, New York and wondered why his eyes were cloudy?  She wondered what it was like to live in a world of darkness. This made Patricia want to be a doctor but all the doctors she knew were men. And, a medical degree was expensive and took years to obtain. Patricia's family did not have the money to send her school. 

Her parents felts a good education was very important. Her father worked in the marine merchant while her mother cleaned and cooked at a Park Avenue apartment to save for her education. Patricia's mother gave her a chemistry set to further encourage her interest in science. Patricia practiced sewing and mending and treating her dolls!

In high school Patricia studied and worked hard. In college she continued to work hard at her studies while volunteering to read to those who had vision problems. Patricia then enrolled in medical school and by the time she finished she knew she wanted to be an eye surgeon.

Dr. Patricia Bath began working at the Harlem Hospital Eye Clinic where she saw many patients who had never seen an ophthalmologist. She was able to enlist the help of her professors at school to help for free at the clinic.She then joined the Jules Stein eye Institute in California as an ophthalmologist, becoming the first woman to do so. But her office was located in the basement next to the lab animals. Patricia wasn't willing to settle for this and demanded an office similar to what her peers had. She also noticed that she was given the more difficult cases. Undaunted, she accepted them and got to work.

When a blind veteran arrived at her office one day, Patricia wondered if it might be possible to restore the man's sight. He had a damaged cornea and Patricia believed if she could find a way to replace his cornea he would see again. In the operating room, she replaced his cornea with a plastic one, delicately sewing it into place. After the operation, her patient was able to see again.

Another patient sought her out when her sight deteriorated. Dr. Bath discovered that a thin membrane had grown in the eye causing her to be blind. After much thought, Patricia had the idea that using a laser might be the solution. Although lasers had been used on other parts of the body including the cornea, they had not yet been used on a cloudy lens. But Patricia's idea was "to focus a laser beam through a tiny fiber as thin as a single strand of hair." To that end, she travelled to Europe to study this possibility in 1986. After trying several types of lasers she was successful using an xenon chloride laser that quickly vaporized the cataract. She patented her new invention, the Laserphaco Probe on May 17, 1988.

Even in retirement, Dr. Patricia Bath continued to help those less fortunate. She helped a school for the blind in Tanzania obtain computers with braille keyboards. She saw possibility where others only saw obstacles.

Discussion

Michelle Lord discovered Dr. Patricia Bath while researching a project about women who were "female firsts". Like Dr. Bath, Lord also wanted to become a doctor and today is a radiographer, a radiologic technologist who uses X-rays, CT scans and sonograms to make diagnostic images of the body. The author was able to interview Dr. Bath via a series of telephone calls, to learn more about her remarkable life.

Patricia Era Bath was born on November 4, 1942 to Rupert and Gladys Bath. Her parents encouraged her in all her schooling. She worked very hard and was able to attend a cancer workshop sponsored by the National Cancer Foundation when she was only sixteen-years-old. Her accomplishments at this workshop were so impressive, that the program head, Dr. Robert Bernard incorporated them into a conference paper. This led to Patricia being awarded the Merit Award by Mademoiselle Magazine in 1960.

Patricia completed high school in two years and graduated from Hunter College in 1964. Her academic path led her to medical school at Howard University, graduating in 1968. This was followed by an internship at Harlem Hospital. During her fellowship at Columbia University in ophthalmology, Dr. Bath discovered that African Americans had a much higher incidence of blindness and glaucoma. 

In the 1970's Patricia Bath achieved several milestones: she was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology in 1973, she was the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Institute at UCLA, and she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976.

As Lord highlights in her picture book, Dr. Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe for which she received a patent in 1988. She was able to restore the sight of people who became blind due to cataracts.

Patricia's Vision focuses on how Patricia Bath saw possibilities where others simply saw problems that could not be fixed. With this determined attitude she was able to make great strides in eye care and help people who had little hope. The ability to think outside the box and devise solutions was Patricia Bath's singular gift to ophthalmology. Lord includes a Timeline of important dates in Patricia Bath's career and life, as well as a Note from the Author and a page long biography of Dr. Patricia Bath. There is also a Selected Works Cited and a list of Additional Reading About Other Women in Stem that readers may find of interest.

Patricia's Vision is a well written and informative picture book about a woman doctor and scientist that few may know about but whom many owe the gift of sight to today.

Book Details:

Patricia's Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight by Michelle Lord
New York: Sterling Children's Books    2020

The Tree Lady by H. Josephine Hopkins

The Tree Lady is a colourful picture book that tells the story of Katherine Olivia Sessions who grew up in the woods of Northern California. In the 1860's girls were not expected to be interested in science and the natural world but Kate was. Kate loved trees and felt at home in the woods.

In 1881, Kate graduated from the University of California with a science degree, something most women at this time did not do. She took a job as a teacher in San Diego, in southern California. At this time San Diego was a desert town with few trees. When Kate looked out of her classroom window over to City Park, she saw cattle grazing and a garbage pit. Kate decided to change that.

After two years, she left her teaching job and began to research the type of trees that would grow in San Diego's dry, hot desert climate. She wrote to gardeners all over the world requesting tree seeds. She travelled to Mexico to see the kinds of trees that survived there. She grew the seeds she received in a nursery and began planting trees throughout San Diego. People also bought trees from her nursery to plant in their yards.

By 1900, San Diego was a changed city. Kate continued to plant more trees especially in City Park which was now renamed Balboa Park, so that the park would be even more beautiful for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. When the exposition opened, San Diego's beautiful gardens stunned visitors. Kate earned the title of the Mother of Balboa Park and received many awards for her beautification of the city.

 Discussion

The Tree Lady presents the life and work of Katherine Olivia Sessions, a horticulturalist whose foresight changed the city of San Diego from a desert city to one renowned for its trees.

Katherine Olivia Sessions was born on November 8th 1957 in San Francisco. Kate's family moved to a ranch in East Oakland in 1868. On the ranch Kate enjoyed the woods and rode her pony. She graduated from high school in Oakland in 1875 and then travelled to Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands). In 1877, Kate was one of the first group of women allowed to study at the University of California at Berkley. She graduated in 1881 with a Bachelor of Science. 

 She accepted a teaching position at a primary school in Oakland and then moved to San Diego to teach at the Russ school.  After two years, Kate was invited to join her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Solon Blaisdell in purchasing and running the San Diego Nursery. This was the beginning of Kate's involvement in operating a number of nurseries and flower shops in the city. 

In 1892 she began to develop what would eventually be called Balboa Park. Kate leased land from the city in what was then called City Park, nothing more than a barren, dry mesa. In exchange, she promised to plant one hundred trees a year and to also provide trees for the city. It was at this time she also became the city gardener. By 1905, Kate had transformed the park into a lush, green park with many new types of trees. City Park became Balboa Park, a lush urban park.

Kate went on to teach school children about trees, shrubs and flowering plants and helped them in the school gardens. Kate Sessions, never married and died on March 24, 1940.

The Tree Lady is a biographical picture book that highlights a trailblazing woman who forged her own path at the turn of the 20th century. Kate Sessions developed a deep interest in trees and horticulture as a child. Her love of the natural world was likely considered "unfeminine" at a time when women were still encouraged to focus on domestic duties within the home. At this time it would have been unusual for a woman to earn an advanced degree in science and to work in her field of study.  Kate was fortunate to be able parlay her skill and knowledge into creating an urban park for the city of San Diego. Like most trailblazers, she had a unique vision and she worked to make it happen. Her story is one of perseverance and determination. Kate Sessions is a reminder to girls today, that their dreams are attainable.

Aiding in telling the story of Kate Sessions, are the vibrant green illustrations of Jill McElmurry which were rendered in gauche on 140 lb cold-pressed watercolor paper. These colourful panels give life to this story of a woman who in her own way made the city of San Diego a more vibrant and colourful place too!

Kate Sessions image: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75383463/katherine-olivia-sessions/photo#view-photo=62217475

Book Details:

The Tree Lady by H.Josephine Hopkins
New York: Beach Lane Books      2013

Path To The Stars: My Journey From Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She is also an accomplished engineer and businesswoman. In Path To The Stars, Sylvia tells her own story about growing up in New Mexico during the social changes of the 1960's and how she found her own path to the stars.

Sylvia was born in South Dakota while her father was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Her father's family was from Mexico but he had grown up in Texas and spoke fluent English. Her mother grew up in Parral, Mexico, in the the state of Chihuahua and could not speak English. For Sylvia's Mami, life with two small children in a strange country was lonely and very different.

When Sylvia's father was discharged from the army, her family moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico.There they moved in with her father's older sister, Tia Alma and her family. The home was crowded but filled with children to play with. Sylvia's father found work at New Mexico State University as a chemist in the physical science labs. Sylvia's mother, who had a sixth grade education, stayed at home to look after the children but also worked cleaning homes in El Paso, Texas.  Eventually Sylvia's family moved to another house on Solano Street. Her aunt, her mother's younger sister, Tia Angelica came to stay with them because her mother was expecting a baby. Soon, Sylvia's younger sister, Laura was born.

Shortly after Laura's birth, Sylvia's father was fired from his job because he did not take his work seriously and often made mistakes. He found a new job at the White Sands Missile Range as an analytical chemist, a job he took much more seriously.  The family moved again, this time to Griggs Street. In Las Cruces, Sylvia's Mami loved the close knit community and knew many of the families.

When Mario was six-years-old and Sylvia was four-years-old, they began taking lessons from Hermana Amelia Diaz who taught them English. Sylvia's Mami wanted them to be able to understand the language before they began attending Bradley Elementary School. Sylvia learned the Pledge of Allegiance, and learned to read in English but not Spanish.

Sadly, tragedy struck when Sylvia's younger sister Laura was only nineteen months old. She contracted meningitis and was hospitalized for months. Laura survived the illness and eventually returned home, but much changed. She had been a boisterous, happy child who chattered, but now she was quiet, withdrawn into her own world. Initially her vision had been affected by the meningitis, and she was unresponsive, unable to walk or talk. Although she would mostly recover, Laura's illness changed Sylvia's family in many ways. Her father stopped going to church, her mother decided to learn how to drive, reasoning that if she had been able to, they might have gotten Laura medical treatment sooner. Her mother also decided that they needed to move away from their poor neighborhood where the streets weren't paved, the houses close together with feral dogs wandering around.

Before attending Grade One at Bradley Elementary School in the fall, Sylvia was enrolled in the Head Start program, despite many neighbors being wary of the government program. However, Sylvia flourished in the program, learning to read books, and becoming a confident speaker to her classmates.

Sylvia's family moved again, this time across town to a house on Kay Lane in a neighborhood where everyone spoke English and there were few Mexicans. This move meant attending a new school, Alameda Elementary School where Sylvia found it difficult to fit in. Initially she was placed in the remedial grade two class, which shocked Sylvia even though she quickly moved out of the class. Sylvia found it difficult to make friends, feeling sad and fearful, afraid she would be moved back in class if she gave the wrong answer.  One aspect of attending school at Alameda was that Sylvia was not the only girl who played on the swings and monkey bars.

But Sylvia's life was about the take a very different path because of one classmate who reached out to her. One day after school, Sylvia was invited by a classmate, Sylvia Black to attend Brownies, a part of Girl Guides for younger girls. With her mother's permission, Sylvia accompanied her classmate to Brownies. For Sylvia, Brownies offered her hope from the very first meeting. When she was quickly and firmly corrected on how to safely pass scissors, Sylvia was so impressed that she decided she really wants to be a part of Brownies. The skills and attitude towards life, she would learn in Brownies and later on in Girl Guides would stay with Sylvia and help guide her towards the goals and life she envisioned for herself. Ultimately, these skills would help her reach for the stars and further than she could have ever foreseen.

Discussion

Path To The Stars chronicles Sylvia Acevedo's journey from a young girl uncertain about her future but determined to have "adventures" to an industrial engineer at NASA. After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a degree in industrial engineering, Acevedo worked as an engineer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Projects she participated in included the Solar Polar Solar Probe and the Voyager 2 flyby mission to Jupiter.  Voyager is still operational as of this post! Eventually Sylvia went on to obtain her Masters in Systems Engineering from Stanford, one of the first Hispanic-Americans to do so.

While doing an interview about Stanford in the mid-2000's, Acevedo remembered how her Girl Scout experience positively impacted her life, giving her the skills and confidence to succeed. Acevedo came full circle when she was nominated to serve on the national board of the Girl Scouts.

Path To The Stars portrays Sylvia as an intelligent, determined, resourceful child who grew into a confident young adult. The first signs of her determination and resourcefulness are shown when Sylvia is determined to save for her first library card. Although her older brother Mario did not have to save money for a library card, Sylvia did. Instead of buying treats with the leftover change from errands, Sylvia would save the change. She eventually saved more than eight dollars. When she was placed in the remedial class for second grade, she writes, "...By the end of my first day, I'd made up my mind that I would not stay the worst student in the worst second-grade class. I didn't know how I'd do it, but I'd find a way to move up." She did just that with her strong reading skills.

Joining Brownies had a profoundly positive influence on Sylvia's life. At her first meeting she learned two things. The people in Brownies, "...care about how to do things correctly and safely, and they wanted to teach me these things too. And, I realized, that meant they cared about me...Brownies could tell me how to do things the right way." Her sister Laura's illness had made Sylvia feel as though she had no control over events in her life. Brownies offered Sylvia that possibility.

From her Brownies experience of selling cookies to raise money for a camping trip taught Sylvia "how to plan and save for the future." This was an important lesson for her because her family's precarious financial situation meant that unanticipated expenses often caught her parents by surprise. "Selling cookies completely changed the way I thought about my life. I had learned invaluable skills: how to sell and how to create opportunity for my Girl Scout troop -- and for me. I could create possibilities for myself. That gave me confidence and the courage to dream big dreams."

Earning badges in Brownies gave Sylvia the courage to learn how to bowl."Because of the badges, I knew that I could teach myself to fulfill a goal and work as a member of a team. "  Brownies also opened up to Sylvia the path she would choose later on as a young adult. Her Brownie leader, Mrs. Beeman noticed Sylvia's love of the stars and suggested to her that work on the Observer badge from the older Cadette Girl Scouts. Resourceful and determined, Sylvia sent away for a rocket kit and with the help of older brother Mario, launched her rocket. Her cooking badge taught her that she could do science.

"At the end of my time in Junior Girl Scouts, I loved the way my sash looked, with its rows of colorful badges. I was proud of what the badges represented, each one showing that I'd mastered a new skill. Every badge reminded me of the community to which I belonged.... Whether those skills belonged in the kitchen or to the outdoors, we were all gaining confidence in our own abilities."

As a young teen, Sylvia began to understand that her parents were not good planners and often weren't prepared for emergencies. After several serious incidents which placed Sylvia and her family in either life threatening or serious situations, she came to the realization that she would have to be the "one who did the planning ahead for my family...Over and over in Girl Scouts, I had learned that planning ahead and doing things properly could help you get what you wanted."

Sylvia grew into a teenager who knew what she wanted. In Junior High School she signed up for a free class on car maintenance and learned how to change the oil, something she did for her family on a regular basis after that. Once again life lessons learned in Girl Scouts were the driving force. "It was just as the Girl Scouts had taught me: be prepared, and you can take control of your life. Cars and furnaces don't have to break down, and people don't have to be stranded in the desert." This determination was to stand her in good stead later on as she experienced resistance from universities in entering her chosen field of industrial engineering. She was questioned merely because she was a woman interested in what was a mainly male scientific field.

Sylvia's local library was also instrumental in influencing her life. A book about Clara Barton that her parents purchased for her, intrigued Sylvia because "It was the first time I'd ever read about a woman who did important things, even helping to win a war." In the library Sylvia liked to read "biographies about the childhoods of famous people". At times the local library was a place of refuge, such as when her mother planned to leave her father.

Sylvia also touches on the different expectations for her and her brother Mario from their father. "Papa expected me to get good grades in school, but it was never with the same interest that he took in my brother. Papa never asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the way Mami did. I knew he expected me to get married, have children, and keep house, just like Mami. He even said so sometimes." Her desire to attend college led Sylvia to refuse attending the home economics class in high school. Sylvia stood up to her father who felt that this was a class she needed. "But now, I refused to go every day to a class that was preparing me to be a homemaker. I was going to college, and I needed to learn other things besides cooking and sewing. And that's what I told Papa." At first her father refused to sign the paper exempting her from the class but eventually gave in. Sylvia took an extra math class.

Sylvia Acevedo's biography is fascinating and well told. Her story is that of  a girl who grew up with big dreams and found a way to make them happen. She was part of that generation of young women who forged a new path, overcoming obstacles, pushing themselves to be the best they could be, and taking risks. She was given the skills through her experiences in Girl Guides and certainly took to heart the motto, "Nothing is impossible if you work hard and develop the skills you need to succeed."

Path to the Stars should be read by any girl wanting a career in science, by any girl with big dreams. Her experiences entering university and the work world are familiar to those women, myself included who had to deal with discrimination simply because we are women. A well written and engaging story for all young readers!

image credits: https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/news/girl-scouts-new-ceo/index.html

Book Details:

Path To The Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo
New York: Clarion Books       2018
309 pp.

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became The World's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating

This beautiful picture book tells the story of a young girl named Eugenie Clark who was so fascinated by sharks and that she devoted her life to learning more about them. Eugenie was born in 1922 at a time when a career in science was not considered a reasonable choice for a lady. Eugenie's love affair with sharks began with a trip to the Battery Park Aquarium one Saturday afternoon.

Life was challenging for the young Eugenie. Her father died when she was only two years old. Because she was of Japanese-American heritage; her father was American, her mother Japanese, Eugenie sometimes experienced bullying and racism. However, Eugenie used these difficult experiences to forge a determined spirit that was to help her in her studies in the male dominated science disciplines.

Eugenie Clark

Fascinated by the underwater world of the oceans, Eugenie continued to visit the aquarium every weekend, to learn as much as she could about the fish she saw in the tanks. When Eugenie informed her parents that she wanted to become an explorer like William Beebe, a famous naturalist and marine biologist, her parents suggested she consider working for someone like Beebe as a secretary.

Undaunted, Eugenie attended Hunter College where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology. Eugenie was able to undertake post graduate studies at New York University after being refused entry to Columbia. The department head refused her application fearing she would leave her research to raise a family. Dr. CharlesBreder Jr., a renowned ichthyologist guided Eugenie's research at New York University. In 1950, Eugenie earned her Ph.D for her research on platies and swordtails.

Not only was Eugenie determined but she showed courage too. On her first dive when she was a research assistant at Scripps Institute of Oceanography Eugenie used a helmet and face mask. During the dive,  a diving hose ruptured. Unable to breathe, Eugenie removed the helmet and surfaced. Despite this frightening experience, Eugenie did a second dive shortly after and many more. In fact, diving became a part of her work as a scientist and when scuba gear was invented, Eugenie used it for her dives.

Eugenie helped to found the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Placida, Florida in 1955. It moved several times; to Siesta Key and Sarasota. In 1967, it was renamed the Mote Marine Laboratory.

Eugenie became interested in studying sharks after receiving a request from a cancer researcher to capture sharks for a study. With the construction of a live shark pen, Eugenie had access to sharks and surprisingly she was able to train them to push a button for food. This countered the belief at the time that sharks were mindless monsters of the ocean, intent on seeking out food only. Eventually Eugenie became more and more interested in sharks, studying them in the wild, and advocating for their protection.

Eventually Eugenie joined the faculty at the University of Maryland and became a full professor in 1973. Eugenie made several interesting discoveries in her research. She discovered a that a type of flatfish named the Red Sea Moses sole secretes a substance that repels sharks. On a dive into caves in Mexico to investigate sharks who lay motionless, Eugenie theorized that they do so to shed parasites. Eugenie and her team also discovered that whale sharks live birth to live young. 

Jess Keating and Marta Alvarez Miguens have crafted a delightful picture book that tells Eugenie's life story. Miguens colourful illustrations, done using Adobe Photoshop capture in an imaginative way, Eugenie Clark's intense interest in life in the oceans. There is a section at the back, titled Shark Bites that offers unusual facts about sharks and a colourful time line of Eugenie's life, highlighting her major accomplishments. In her Author's Note, Keating indicates that she wanted to tell Eugenie Clark's story because of her determination to follow her childhood dream of becoming a scientist. Eugenie did not let anyone or anything deter her.

Book Details:

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became The World's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating

Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky   2017

Ada's Ideas by Fiona Robinson

Ada's Ideas tells the remarkable story of Ada Lovelace whose father was the famous poet, Lord Byron. Byron was a flamboyant man who had many lovers including his half-sister, Augusta. In 1814, Lord Byron proposed to Anne Isabella Milbanke, an intelligent, proper young woman. Anne was well educated and interested in mathematics and astronomy. They were married in January 1815 and their daughter Augusta Ada was born in December. Fed up with Lord Byron's wild ways, Anne left her husband, taking baby Ada with her. Byron left England for the continent. He never returned and Anne and Ada never saw him again.

Lady Byron raised Ada strictly, teaching her music, mathematics and French. According to Robinson, Ada's mother was concerned she would be unstable like her wild father. However, Ada seems to have inherited her father's creative imagination. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, many wealthy families toured the new factories. These factories inspired Ada and her imagination was fired up.

After being seriously ill for several years, Ada recovered and re-enter society. When she was seventeen-years-old she met Mr. Babbage, an inventor interested in developing a machine that always solve mathematical questions correctly.  Eventually Ada married and had a family, but she was still interested in working with Mr. Babbage. He had a problem that needed solving and Ada was just the person who could help him!

Discussion

Fiona Robinson is an award-winning author-illustrator. Her story about Ada Lovelace who was a mother to three children AND who continued to follow her dream of creating the algorithm for Mr. Babbage's Analytical Engine is inspiring. The illustrations for Ada's Ideas were created "with Japanese watercolors on Arches paper.  The paintings were then cut out using more than five hundred X-ACTO blades, assembled, and glued to different depths to achieve a 3-D final artwork. The images were then photographed." The result is a picture book with a very unique look for a very unique woman, considered to be the world's first computer programmer.

Ada's Ideas is one of many new picture books about remarkable women whose intellectual feats have been largely ignored and ultimately forgotten. Often the contributions by women scientists have been dismissed and never fully recognized. Sometimes their work was stolen and built upon by male scientists who then received world-wide recognition. These picture books aim to inspire young girls to continue to discover, explore and create and to remember those who went before.


Book Details:

Ada's Ideas by Fiona Robinson
New York: Abrahms Books for Young Readers 2016

Women In Science: 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world by Rachel Ignotofsky

Women in Science presents the stories of fifty remarkable women who pushed back against the social conventions and attitudes that limited their participation in science, to achieve their dream. In the past, women faced many restrictions in obtaining a higher education, often refused entry into most scientific disciplines and were usually not allowed to present their research at conventions or publish their work in scientific journals. But where there is a will, there is a way. Despite overwhelming odds and little recognition, many women achieved their dreams and made remarkable contributions that helped improve the lives of people.

Ignotofsky's Women In Science presents some of these women, many of whom will not be known to younger or older readers. Among those profiled are the well known:

• Kathryn Johnson, physicist and mathematician whose story was told in the recent film, Hidden Figures.
• Barbara McClintock, ctyogeneticist who discovered that genes could "jump".
• Rosalind Franklin, chemist and x-ray crystallographer who discovered the shape of DNA.
• Marie Curie, chemist and physicist who (along with her husband Pierre) discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium and who also discovered radiation.
• Rachel Carson, marine biologist and conservationist, who wrote Silent Spring and was the impetus for the banning of the pesticide DDT.
• Ada Lovelace,a mathematician wrote the first recognized computer program
• Elizabeth Blackwell, became the first woman doctor in America.

The profiles are listed chronologically, based on each woman's birthdate, beginning with Hypatia, a Greek astronomer. Each profile consists of two pages; one page containing a short bio, the other a detailed illustration of the woman scientist done in Ignotofsky's unique style. Ignotofsky's artwork in Women In Science is a testament to her "passion for taking dense information and making it fun and accessible." Ignotofsky who is an honors graduate of the Tyler School of Art's graphic design program believes "that illustration is a powerful tool that can make learning exciting." Readers will find that the author-illustrator has made each of the fifty biographies fascinating reading and an inspiration to young women, especially those who are interested in science. Rachel Ignotofsky's website,  provides more information about her work.

At the back of the book there's a detailed section outlining sources including films, websites and books, as well as an index.Women In Science is a must-read for any girl interested in science because it will give her a sense of history, the struggle women before her faced and the courage to follow her dreams, should that dream be to become a scientist.

Book Details:

Women In Science: 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world by Rachel Ignotofsky
Berkeley, California:  Ten Speed Press       2016
127 pp.

Margaret and the Moon by Dean Robbins

Margaret And The Moon tells the story of Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist and the first software engineer. Margaret earned a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1958. During her time at Earlham she met James Cox Hamilton and they married after she received her B.A. She postponed work on a PH.D when she was offered the opportunity to work on the Apollo missions. At this time there were no such disciplines as computer science and software engineering, the latter a term Margaret coined while working on the Apollo program. She was responsible for the on board flight software for the Apollo and Skylab missions.

Before working on Apollo Margaret worked at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developing software to aid in predicting weather and she also worked on the SAGE Project at Lincoln Lab where she first developed software for predicting weather systems and track their movements. This latter ability was refined for use in tracking hostile aircraft, as the Cold War was in progress. Margaret joined Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at MIT which was involved in the Apollo program, responsible for developing software for the Apollo command module and the lunar lander.

Margaret And The Moon tells the story of how Margaret's curiosity about the world around her and her love of math led her to her career in mathematics and ultimately into coding. And that's a good thing because unknown to those of us who were watching the first lunar landing in July of 1969, Margaret was the person who saved the mission.When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were attempting to land the lunar module Eagle on the surface of the moon, the on board computers sent out an alarm. The alarms indicated the computers were overloaded with too many tasks and the landing would be aborted. But the code that Margaret Hamilton had written had foreseen this very thing and it ordered the computer to ignore those tasks and give priority to the lunar landing tasks.

Robbins picture book takes young readers through the story in a simply way and then at the back provides an Author's Note about Margaret Hamilton as well as a Bibliography and offers Additional Reading resources. Lucy Knisley's illustrations were done using ink and paper and coloured in Adobe Photoshop.
The wonderful photographs of Margaret throughout her life can be found
on the inside of the back cover of the book. A better option would have been to include these on the pages at the end.

For more background information on Margaret Hamilton, read Wired Magazine's great article, "Her Code Got Humans On The Moon -- And Invented Software Itself".


Book Details:

Margaret And The Moon by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Lucy Knisley
New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2017