Mae Jemison

Children's Literature - Leila Toledo

Mae Jemison dreamed of being an astronaut from the time she was a very young child in Chicago. Although she studied chemical engineering and eventually became a doctor, she never wavered in her desire to fly in space. In 1986, she was one of 2,000 people who applied to NASA for the astronaut training program. She was selected and after several years of training and working for NASA, on Sept. 2, 1992, she became the first African American woman to go out in space. This book is part of a series "Making Their Mark, Women in Science and Medicine." Mae Jemison is an excellent example; she shows children that dreams do come true.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3--A short, clearly written biography for beginning readers. While the text is well organized, the choice of illustrations may confuse readers. For example, one photograph shows a young girl with a man, presumably her father, captioned, "Mae liked to spend time with her father when she was a little girl, just like this girl does." In another, the astronaut isn't identified. Some of the photographs seem interchangeable with any book on space exploration. Difficult words in the text are in bold type with the pronunciation in parenthesis, and defined in the glossary. Although the text is informative, the photos selected do little to enhance it.--Allison Trent Bernstein, Blake Middle School, Medfield, MA