Judith Resnik: Challenger Astronaut

School Library Journal

Gr 5-7 --Bernstein describes Resnick's prodigious intellectual and physical accomplishments, but also looks into her private family life. She is said to be the first Jew in space; her career in Hebrew school and her Bat Mitzvah and confirmation are covered in detail. She came from a respectable family, did not get along with her mother, and before and after her marriage had a long-standing relationship with a mediocre student (later pilot) who, to the horror of her parents, was part Lebanese. The quality of the writing wavers occasionally (``Born in Hawaii, fellow astronaut El Onizuka was fun loving too, often bringing back macadamia nuts from his home state''), the Challenger disaster is described twice, and, in light of Resnick's apparent lack of devoutness and lines such as, ``Judy didn't want to be known as a Jewish astronaut,'' it seems disingenuous to make her religion the major theme. However, the authors admire their subject without idolizing her, and this book considerably expands the brief chapters in the Cohens' Heroes of the Challenger (Archway, 1986) and Fox's Women Astronauts: Aboard the Space Shuttle (Messner, 1987). Included is an excellent current bibliography. --John Peters, New York Public Library