Galaxy Girls Book Review

Before I even turned to page one, the cover of Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space by

Libby Jackson really drew me in. The colors were pretty and very shiny. I love that she chose such a creative title. I might not have been as interested if the title was just “Women in Space.” Boring.

The stories have just the right amount of information about the women scientists and space explorers. Each profile tells you not too little to confuse you, and not too much that you lose interest.

The book is organized by when they lived, starting as early as the 1700s with Emilie du Chatelet, a mathematician, and physicist. She completed a French translation of Sir Isaac’s Newton’s Principia Mathematica, less than a week before her death. To this day, it remains the most widely read version of Newton’s book in French.

The profiles continue into the present day, and each one features a quote from the woman scientist or explorer along with an illustrated portrait, which were created by students and graduates from the London College of Communication.

I really enjoyed learning about the people who helped the astronauts. Like Irene Long, a doctor and NASA’s Chief Medical Officer, who was so interested in aerospace medicine that she wrote numerous letters to get into a program in her home state of Ohio until she finally got a call back to apply. She became the second-only civilian to study aerospace medicine at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base. The people who get the astronauts into space and make sure they are safe while they are there deserve so much credit and this book really brought that to light.

My favorite part is the cool, interactive pages at the end of the book that give you options about what of interests or careers might come in handy if you want to be a galaxy girl (or boy). Some of my interests include reading, acting, dancing, singing, and writing my own books.