Women's History Month Read-Alouds

This month, I chose several books with similar themes for my weekly read-aloud. Here are a few reviews:

Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When astronaut Mae Jemison was a young girl, she dreamed of seeing the earth from space. This nicely illustrated picture book tells a story of Mae's childhood dreaming both with the support of her family and in the face of the discriminatory expectations of others about what was "appropriate" for her to dream. I liked that the author and illustrator showed Mae doing things like going to the library to learn more about the job she aspired to do and dressing up as an astronaut, as these are things that children can relate to.

The book provides a very subtle introduction to the obstacles that some children face when they share their dreams and possibly a way to introduce a discussion about implicit bias to children. That said, the message may be too subtle and expect too much in the way of cultural understanding from young readers. I think the book could provide a little more detailed biography and context for the discrimination Mae faced. The story is not really placed within a specific time period until the short biography at the end, when the time period in which Mae grew up very much factors in to the discrimination she faced. I found myself looking up Mae Jemison's bio (a nice side-effect, I guess, since it spurred me to learn more) because I wondered how Mae, having been born in Alabama, went to elementary school with white children and had a white teacher back in the 50s-60s. I learned that she actually grew up in Chicago, which also factors in to Mae's experience. The story of the teacher thinking Mae should be a nurse is true, but the book doesn't provide much context for children to understand why a teacher might have assumed being a nurse was appropriate and being a scientist (what Mae said she wanted to be, not exactly an astronaut) was not. While adults, like me, can be expected to understand why such an assumption would be true within the context of Mae's story, children (and even adults who do not know who Mae Jemison is) will lack that context. In that sense, the books is a bit of a missed opportunity...

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The Girl with a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague by Julia Finley Mosca
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book made a delightful read-aloud for Women's History Month! I decided to group some selections about women in STEAM careers for my weekly read-alouds to one of our multi-grade special education classrooms.

My students enjoyed the rhyming text. The rhymes were well-chosen and made the book a lot of fun to read aloud. The bold graphic illustrations were also a hit. The message of being underestimated but continuing to work toward your goals was one that resonated with my students. The book addresses some tough issues of race and gender discrimination in a sensitive way that works for younger readers. I appreciated the excellent back materials. When we read a book about a real person, my students always enjoy seeing photos of the person, and I liked the use of the timeline to present some of the photos. The note from Raye at the end was also lovely.

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Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing by Dean Robbins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Margaret and the Moon was another engaging women in STEAM read-aloud selection. This book also had a strong message of pursuing your goals even when others underestimate you. The illustrations are vibrant, and I especially liked the ones of the night sky. The illustrations do depict a mission control room that is far, far more diverse than the actual one (CNN has some good historical photos here: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/us/apo...), but I find inclusion a bit hard to criticize in a kids' book. (When should we err on the side of historical accuracy and when should we err on the side of inclusion in a book meant for kids if we aren't explicitly discussing those issues in the particular book? It's something I think about.) My students liked seeing the photo of Margaret with her huge stack of code that inspired one of the illustrations. On the whole, I thought this was a good book for Women's History Month or a STEAM unit.

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