Grasping mysteries : girls who loved math

Looking up: Caroline Herschel -- Making change with charts I: Florence Nightingale -- Exploring currents: Hertha Marks Ayrton -- Mapping what's hidden: Marie Tharp -- Creating paths through space: Katherine Johnson -- Making change with charts II: Edna Lee Paisano -- Looking beyond: Vera Rubin.

Summary:

A biographical novel in verse of seven girls from different time periods who used math to explore the mysteries of the universe and grew up to do innovate work that changed history.

Target Audience:

Ages 10 Up. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Grades 4-6. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Format:

Book

Length:

305 pages :

Copies:

Available:*

Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Juvenile Fiction	JF/ATKIN/GRASP	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Learn about seven groundbreaking women in math and science in this gorgeously written biographical novel-in-verse, a companion to the "original and memorable" ( Booklist , starred review) Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science .

After a childhood spent looking up at the stars, Caroline Herschel was the first woman to discover a comet and to earn a salary for scientific research. Florence Nightingale was a trailblazing nurse whose work reformed hospitals and one of the founders of the field of medical statistics. The first female electrical engineer, Hertha Marks Ayrton registered twenty-six patents for her inventions.

Marie Tharp helped create the first map of the entire ocean floor, which helped scientists understand our subaquatic world and suggested how the continents shifted. A mathematical prodigy, Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories and launch windows for many NASA projects including the Apollo 11 mission. Edna Lee Paisano , a citizen of the Nez Perce Nation, was the first Native American to work full time for the Census Bureau, overseeing a large increase in American Indian and Alaskan Native representation. And Vera Rubin studied more than two hundred galaxies and found the first strong evidence for dark matter.

Told in vibrant, evocative poems, this stunning novel celebrates seven remarkable women who used math as their key to explore the mysteries of the universe and grew up to do innovative work that changed the world.

Author Notes

Jeannine Atkins is the author of several books for young readers about courageous women, including Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science , Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math , Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis , and Borrowed Names: Poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters . Jeannine teaches writing for children and young adults at Simmons University. She lives in western Massachusetts. Visit her at JeannineAtkins.com.

Reviews (1)

Booklist Review

In this companion book to Finding Wonders (2016), Atkins presents the lives of seven girls who excelled in mathematics and later, often after overcoming significant obstacles, made significant contributions in related fields. Caroline Herschel discovered a comet, and Vera Rubin provided evidence of dark matter in the universe. Inventor Hertha Ayrton became the first woman electrical engineer. Meticulous statistical records were key to Florence Nightingale's success in changing hospital care and Edna Lee Paisano's progress in gaining significantly greater representation for Native Americans in Census Bureau reports. Marie Tharp turned a mountain of data into maps of the Atlantic Ocean floor, while Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories to the moon. Written in free verse, the text is welcoming, informative, pithy, wry, very readable, and occasionally haunting: as Florence Nightingale carries her lantern through the hospital wards at night, soldiers "reach out to touch the shadow she leaves behind." Still, doctors resentful of her authority refer to her not as the "Lady with the Lamp" but as the "Lady with the Hammer." A heartening celebration of mathematically gifted women.