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Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream |  | Author: Tanya Lee Stone
Creator: Margaret A. Weitekamp
Publisher: Candlewick
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 109931
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 144
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 9.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0763636118
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.450092273
EAN: 9780763636111
ASIN: 0763636118
Publication Date: February 24, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
They had the right stuff. They defied the prejudices of the time. And they blazed a trail for generations of women to follow.
What does it take to be an astronaut? Excellence at flying, courage, intelligence, resistance to stress, top physical shape â any checklist would include these. But when America created NASA in 1958, there was another unspoken rule: you had to be a man. Here is the tale of thirteen women who proved that they were not only as tough as the toughest man but also brave enough to challenge the government. They were blocked by prejudice, jealousy, and the scrawled note of one of the most powerful men in Washington. But even though the Mercury 13 women did not make it into space, they did not lose, for their example empowered young women to take their place in the sky, piloting jets and commanding space capsules. ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is the story of thirteen true pioneers of the space age.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children October 28, 2009
Yana V. Rodgers (New Brunswick, NJ)
In the early 1960s, a group of women dubbed the "Mercury 13" successfully completed a grueling set of psychological and physical tests in a private program designed to explore if women were as qualified as men to become astronauts. Led by Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass all the tests, their performance in these tests equaled or surpassed that of the male astronauts hired by NASA and clearly demonstrated that women were physically capable of working in this capacity. The bigger challenge proved to be the struggle to change prevailing attitudes and convince the United States government that women had the right to become astronauts.
Despite an extremely well-organized and persistent lobbying campaign, their proven qualifications, and high-level connections (the group of 13 included the wife of a senator), Ms. Cobb and her colleagues failed to gain admission into NASA's official astronaut training program. Their political efforts could not overcome intense opposition stemming from the condescending coverage in the media, stonewalling from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (he famously scribbled "Let's stop this now!" on a memo about women in NASA), and damaging testimony from a renowned but resentful female pilot at a key Congressional hearing. It took almost two more decades before women gained admission into NASA's training program.
With its meticulous research, appealing display of photographs, and crisp writing, Almost Astronauts provides both an interesting and informative account of women's efforts to shatter existing gender norms and enter into a highly non-traditional occupation in aeronautics. In doing so, the book provides a useful overview of important issues in the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and aviation history. Given its appeal to younger readers, the book has the potential to increase pressure for continued changes that support the advancement of women in the sciences.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too September 19, 2009
TeensReadToo.com (All Over the US & Canada)
When I was ten, I wanted to be an astronaut. I checked out books from my local library, I worked hard in my science classes, I visited the Kennedy Space Center, and I read a lot of science fiction so that if I ever ran into aliens on my mission to Mars, I'd be prepared. Reading this book made me realize how lucky I was to have grown up in an atmosphere where the abilities of women were respected more or less regardless of their gender. The same year I turned ten, Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.
But back in the 1960s, aspiring women had no such role models; if they wanted young girls to understand that it was possible for women to perform just as well as men, they would have to become the models for future generations. In this book, Stone tells the story of the "Mercury 13," a group of thirteen women who fought tooth and nail for entrance into the space program decades before NASA let any women in. The combination of clear prose, firm social and historical grounding, and the detail-oriented nature of this account had me hooked from the beginning, opening a window into the history of women in space.
Stone portrays her facts convincingly, utilizing quotes from contemporary media sources like newspapers and magazines along with first-person narratives from the women involved and historical photographs. This combination of sources makes the experience of reading this book visceral, something you feel in your gut. This was particularly evident to me in the chapters where Stone describes in a play-by-play manner the physical and psychological tests that the Mercury 13 underwent in order to prove that they were just as capable as men. For a moment, I felt like I was in that isolation tank, or battling with my first experience of zero-gravity.
Throughout my reading, my emotions oscillated between shock at the unbelievable attitudes toward women that prevented the Mercury 13 from ever seeing space and horror at the realization that these events had occurred less than fifty years ago and are still supported to this day by a vocal minority. Although at times it was difficult even to imagine the level of discrimination that these women faced, Stone makes it quite clear that these women had the kind of boldness and courage borne of intelligence and self-respect that allowed them to continue fighting against these obstacles.
ALMOST ASTRONAUTS tells a story of courage against the odds, but also of a desire to expand beyond horizons, from the boundary of Earth's atmosphere to the assumed boundaries between genders. It makes a good source for a research report, but the clean and clear writing style makes it much more interesting and easy to follow than the average non-fiction work. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in space and the people allowed to go there.
Reviewed by: Candace Cunard
Richie's Picks: ALMOST ASTRONAUTS April 24, 2009
Richie Partington (Sebastopol, CA United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"'It is just a fact. The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.'"
-- John Glenn, July 1962, testifying before Congress in opposition to women being part of the U.S. space program.
When I read the publisher's catalogue copy describing ALMOST ASTRONAUTS, I was shocked. I had no idea that women had sought out and been denied the opportunity to participate in America's Mercury space program. Not that it doesn't make perfect sense that experienced women pilots would have sought to participate, but why had I never heard anything about it or read anything about it in high school or college American history classes? I got on the computer, tracked down a copy of ALMOST ASTRONAUTS in a distant library, and submitted a request to have it be transferred here to my branch in Sebastopol. The other day, when I went downtown to pick it up, the female librarian working the circulation desk went to scan the book, read the cover, and did a double-take. "I had absolutely no idea that women tried to participate in the Mercury program!" she exclaimed.
ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is a story whose telling is long overdue..
John Glenn was clearly not alone in his beliefs about a woman's place. He was speaking in an era when "women weren't allowed to rent a car or take out a loan from the bank without a man's signature; they could not play on a professional sports team at all. They couldn't report the news on television or run in a city marathon or serve as police officers. They weren't allowed to fly jets, either."
I now know (as John Glenn very well knew back then) that highly qualified female pilots had been around for a while. I recently read and wrote about Sherri Smith's FLYGIRL, a story of a fictional female military pilot in the WWII WASP program. Of course, the (99% male) WWII-era Congress failed to provide those women official military status and benefits -- despite their irreplaceable service to their country -- and the WASP program was disbanded by the end of the War. (It turns out that one of the real-life WASP pilots would become one of the women seeking to be part of the Mercury program.)
There is a real-life male hero in ALMOST ASTRONAUTS. Dr. Randy Lovelace was the doctor responsible for putting the Mercury astronauts through all of their testing, and he decided to instigate an unofficial process for women to "try out" for the Mercury program. "He was a scientist who believed that women are as capable as men, and he wanted to prove it." Dr. Lovelace was a smart guy who understood the times and so he recognized that the women pilots would have to be even more qualified than the men in order to have any chance of being seriously considered for the Mercury program.
Dr. Lovelace worked first with Jerrie Cobb, a woman pilot who already held a bunch of world flying records and had logged nearly as many hours in the air as John Glenn and Scott Carpenter combined. When Dr. Lovelace put Cobb through several long series of physical and psychological tests, she significantly out-tested the male astronauts (and complained less). In some notable instances, the tests she completed were several times more difficult than those the men had undertaken. Word began to get out to the media about Cobb's test results and she was featured in popular news magazines.
Lovelace and Cobb then developed a list of two dozen more women pilots whose resumes showed them to potentially have the right stuff. A dozen of these women accepted the offer and passed all of the tests they undertook before the patriarchs at NASA and the Navy got wind of what was going on and put a stop to Dr. Lovelace's testing.
The most bizarre aspects of ALMOST ASTRONAUTS involve the political intrigue that surrounded what then happened. You'll have to read the book to find out about LBJ's role in the scuttling of any plans for women astronauts. Just as shocking, we learn that in addition to John Glenn and Scott Carpenter's damaging testimony before Congress, the last nail in the coffin was hammered in by none other than Jackie Cochran, the woman who had run the WWII WASP program (and a real-life character in FLYGIRL). Unfortunately for the 13 potential female astronauts -- and for Sixties women in general -- Cochran had become a politician, and she was jealous of the publicity being given Jerri Cobb and angered by Dr. Lovelace's failure to permit her to tell him how he should be running things. And so Cochran put the kibosh on women astronauts for many years to come:
Committee chair Anfusco: "'Miss Cochran, do you believe that women belong in the space program?'
"Cochran: 'I certainly think the research should be done. Then I can tell you afterward.'"
Anyone familiar with the nonfiction books of Tanya Lee Stone will be aware of the thoroughness of the research, sourcing, appendices, and indexing that characterize the author's work. This book is no exception.
Meet the 13 women who should have been real contenders for America's early space program. ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is a book that has me aware of the fact that I have never gotten on a commercial airliner and seen a woman captain in the cockpit. It is a book that gets me wondering about all of the other important stories of American history that I actually lived through but have, to this point, missed out on.
 teaches the wrong lessons April 13, 2009
A Reader, of course
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
Oh my. I do wish the authors had not written this book for young readers. The words flow nicely, but the book's underlying message is not only wrong, but damaging to the intended audience.
At the heart of the matter is the 1959-1966 requirement that all American astronauts be a "jet test-pilot" before selection. This was perhaps the best decision made in the early days of the space program, as it put the best-trained, best-proven PILOTS into the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. It is simply not tenable, and defies common sense, to claim, a priori, that an experienced civilian aviator who could pass some arbitrary ground-based medical tests would be of the same caliber as career military test pilots. Certainly, anyone making this claim in 1959 would be taking a huge risk. The crews of Gemini 8 and Apollo 13 had their piloting skills tested under harrowing conditions -- thank goodness Armstrong and Lovell were more than just great stick & rudder pilots. Both crews survived, but it was very close. Even today, so far as I know, all pilot astronauts have been military trained jet test pilots.
Given this, it is obvious that the root obstacle was that the military had no female jet test-pilots to offer NASA in 1959, and NASA could not wait. The question that the book's author should have posed to her readers is: what should be done in such a case? Compromise the mission by compromising on quality, or get the mission done with the very best tools at hand? A hard question, even today.
It is better to tell young girls that the best ticket to their goals is, first and foremost, to be the best they can be. Society has thankfully moved on since 1959, so conjuring up a case of past "discrimination" and saddling a young mind with the baggage of past (but corrected) inequities are not lessons anyone should teach. Shame shame shame.
Superb April 3, 2009
21st Century Librarian
Almost Astronauts combines excellent sourcing with a strong narrative and fascinating, large-scale images. For school libraries looking to fill several niches -- history, narrative voice, research potential -- and capture student interest as well. A must-purchase for every public and school library serving 6th through 10th graders.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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