HS Biography – Sally Ride

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O’Shaughnessy, Tam.  Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America’s Pioneering Woman in Space.  New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2015.  978-1-59643-994-8. 153p. $19.99. Gr. 7 and up.

Sally Ride was famous for being America’s first woman in space, but she accomplished so much more during her lifetime than simply being an astronaut.  She was an outstanding tennis player and loving daughter, sister, and wife.  From a young age, she enjoyed watching Dodger baseball and collecting stamps.  She spent her entire fourth grade year traveling through Europe.  After leaving NASA, she worked as a professor and published articles and books.  She even founded her own company, Sally Ride Science, with the goal of sparking interest in science through festivals and publications.  This book, written by Sally’s partner, gives readers a great deal of insight into the private life of one of America’s most famous astronauts.  The text is broken up by family snapshots, newspaper articles, magazine covers, yearbook photographs, report cards, and other personal documents, making it read more like a personal history or scrapbook.  THOUGHTS:  Because the text is easy to understand and is broken up by a wealth of images, this would be an excellent choice for reluctant readers.  Reluctant readers will be especially delighted to learn everything Ride accomplished despite being dubbed an “underachiever” by her classmates.  Pair this title with books like Tanya Lee Stone’s Almost Astronauts or Ron Miller’s Curiosity’s Mission on Mars for a unit on NASA, or pair it with books like Sy Montgomery’s Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World or Emily Arnold McCully’s Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business–and Won! for a unit on influential women in American history.

Biography      Julie Ritter, Montoursville Area High School