She Persisted: Sally Ride
Atia Abawi, Author
Gillian Flint, Illustrator
Philomel Books, Nonfiction, 2021
Pages: 80
Suitable for ages: 6-9
Themes: Sally Ride, Biography, Women, Astronauts Physicists
Synopsis: As the first woman in space, Sally Ride broke barriers and made her dreams come true. But she wanted to do even more! After leaving NASA, she created science and engineering programs that have helped other girls and women make their dreams come true as well.
Why I like this book and the entire She Persisted chapter book series:
Young girls need role models who share their interests and dreams. Sally Ride is particularly interesting because she was curious, active, determined and an athletic. She thrived in sports and grew up with dreams of being a shortstop for the Los Angele Dodgers. In later years she discovered she was an exceptional tennis player. And she loved science and had her own telescope. Becoming an astronaut was not something on her radar.
I appreciated that the author shows readers how dreams change. Even though Sally loved playing tennis in college, she decided to put her studies on hold and went home to California to focus on becoming a professional tennis player. She me and trained day and night, and was recruited to play for Stanford. Doors began to open as found her love of physics.
Abwai also shows readers how hard it was for girls in 1969 to study a subject like physics in college. She wasn’t accepted by male professors who though “girls were taking jobs away from men.” I was in college at the same time and remember the challenges women faced. In many cases there were few role models in specific fields.
The story-like text moves along at a quick pace, relating important information that readers will find appealing. There are six chapters in each book. It is well-targeted for its intended audience. At the end, Abawi includes a section for readers about “How You Can Persist” and follow in the footsteps of Sally Ride. Gillian Flint’s expressive and simple pen and ink drawings compliment the story for readers and give them a peek into Sally’s early life.
Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who stood up, spoke up and rose up against the odds!
Atia Abawi is among a group of authors who have been invited by Chelsea Clinton to write chapters books for young readers about the childhood and lives of remarkable women. Clinton has selected a “sisterhood” of authors to write each book. If you are looking for biographies of famous girls/women to inspire young readers, this series is a perfect choice.
There are 20 books about American women have been released monthly from 2021 to 2022. They include Harriet Tubman, Claudette Colvin, Sally Ride, Virginia Apgar, Nelly Bly, Sonia Sotomayor, Florence Griffith Joiner, Ruby Bridges, Clara Lemlich, Margaret Chase Smith, Maria Tall Chief, Helen Keller, Oprah Winfrey and Coretta Scott King, Temple Grandin, and Mala Yousafzai. Marian Anderson, Maya Lin, Rosalind Franklin and Wangari Maathai will be released in coming months. They may be purchased individually in paperback, or in a chapter book collection. And, they can be found in libraries. This entire series belongs in every school library.
Atia Abawi is a foreign news correspondent who spent ten years living and working in Afghanistan and then the Middle East. She was born to Afghan parents in West Germany and was raised in the United States. She is the critically acclaimed author of The Secret Sky and A Land of Permanent Goodbyes. She currently lives in California with her husband, Connor Powell, their son Arian, and their daughter, Elin.
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*Reviewed from a library copy.
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