Book Review: Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math - Jeanne Atkins
By Lelasta <3
This book, Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math by Jeanne Atkins, tells the story of seven groundbreaking girls who grew up to become famous for their achievements in math and science, in a field dominated by men.
Caroline Herschel: the first woman to discover a comet and to receive a salary as a scientist. Florence Nightingale: the founder of modern nursing and medical statistics. Hertha Marks Ayrton registered twenty-six patents for her inventions.
Marie Tharp created the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. Katherine Johnson was one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist. Edna Lee Paisano was the first Native American fulltime employee of the United States Census Bureau. Vera Rubin provided some of the first evidence for dark matter.
These seven women changed the world.
I would give this book 7.5/10 stars. I really liked the way the author, Jeanne Atkins, narrated each of these girls’ lives in a poetic form, imagining the conversations and arguments that could have taken place. It’s a collection of short stories organized into chapters.
However, even though I liked the book, I wasn’t hooked onto it as much as I was hooked onto Ready Player One, for example. It’s just not my style. As well as that, the vocabulary was much too easy. I think that this book was meant for younger kids looking for a female role model or to be read aloud. In conclusion, I recommend this book for ages 10+.