Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream

Bibliography
Stone, T. & Weitekamp, M. (2009). Almost astronauts : 13 women who dared to dream. Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press. 

Plot Summary
In 1957 the Russians initiated the space race when Sputnik launched. The United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in order to beat the Russians. The Mercury Seven were the first seven men selected, after extensive training and testing, as the first group of American astronauts.

But what about the women?

Almost Astronauts conveys the struggles that thirteen women went through in order to prove that women were fit to travel to space. Thirteen women demonstrated bravery, resilience, and determination throughout the same testing and training as the Mercury Seven astronauts went through. Many of them endured the tests with superior results compared to their male counterparts. Despite their results, prejudice won out. It would be another twenty years before a female could claim the title of astronaut and embark on a mission to space.

Critical Analysis
This is a chapter book that follows a chronological sequence. The first chapter is from 1999 and introduces the main idea of the text, but the next chapter goes backward to 1960. Each page has relevant pictures to the text in black and white. If there is a spread without a photograph, the background of the page is often an expanded version of a photograph. The Foreword, for example, has a picture of clouds in the background. Later, on pages 68-69, is a blown-up version of the picture on page 66 of Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart. It is not until page 103 and onward that there are colored pictures in the book. This is to reflect the gap from when the women fought for their right to join NASA to 1999 when Eileen Collins “took to the skies”.

The author also provides political cartoons and magazine covers from the time period the chapter focuses on. A copy of a letter from then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is provided on page 64 as evidence to his disregard for female astronauts.

At the end of the book, the author provides all of the resources they used to complete this book. They also provide source notes for each chapter. Photography credits, an appendix and an index to pertinent information are also supplied at the end of the book. The author offers up further reading in case the reader is interested in learning more about these women and their efforts.

Review Excerpt(s) 
Sibert Medal (2010)
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Nominee for Older Children (2010)
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (2010)
YALSA Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2010)
NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book (2010)
The HORN BOOK: “Stone presents the full story of early-sixties public discourse about women’s capabilities and clearly shows the personal, political, and physical risks taken by the women in pursuit of their dream.”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: Readers with an interest in history and in women's struggle for equality will undoubtedly be moved.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: This passionately written account of a classic but little-known challenge to established gender prejudices also introduces readers to a select group of courageous, independent women.

Connections
Students can create a research project about one of the thirteen women that completed and passed the tests to become astronauts.
Have a bulletin display about women that struggled to get into a male-dominated industry.
Compared these women to the women from Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space.
Students can research the different tests that the women had to complete in order to become astronauts.
Attempt a deprivation tank activity. Have students lay down with cotton balls in their ears and turn off the lights. See how long it takes for students to begin talking to one another.
Have students expand their knowledge with the references given in the back of the book.