Margot Lee Shetterly

Laura Freeman

The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

Hidden Figures

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country’s future.

The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

Bella Baxter

Loved learning about these incredible women. I hope to be like them.

Hidden Figures follows the story of the black women in the golden age of space and aeronautics. It shows how societal progress was made by black women standing on the shoulders of those who did it first. 

Liz Hunsaker

New York Times bestselling author Margot Lee Shetterly’s book is now available in a new edition perfect for young readers. This is the amazing true story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.

Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition

Sonia Grgas

Really 3.5 stars. 3 for the first half, which was interesting but a little tedious and repetitive, and 4 for the second half which was a page turner. A worthwhile read and a good book discussion book.

Francesca Starecheski

I am ever grateful to literature such as this which forth the multitudes of discrimination which I have never considered, nor will ever understand in their entire fortitude. Despite this, my awe for these woman shall remain unrelenting, as their success exceeds the definitions it is given by blackness and womanhood, by class or creed. It is simply success in its purest, unimpeded, out of this world.

Colleen

2 Stars

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race was my bookclub's selection for March. I was excited to read it. I first heard about NASA's "human computers" a few years ago on Women's Day, so I was excited to learn more about these overlooked historical figures. The hold list at the library was very long, so I requested every format they had (book, ebook, large print, audio book) hoping to get one in time. Unfortunately, the only one that arrived in time turned out to be this "Young Readers Edition."

The "Young Readers Edition" is supposedly aimed at middleschoolers, but given the painfully overly simplified writing, I would consider it maybe third grade level. This version assumes the reader has never had a single history lesson and knows nothing about American History, WWII, civil rights, or the space race. Even if I had read this at the targeted age, I am certain I still would have been bored. Which is a shame because these women do deserve recognition, they just don't get much of it through this book. One of the women is barely even mentioned. 

The book supposedly follows the story of four women working in the mathematics field in the 40's - 60's and their impact on their field. However, I would estimate that maybe one third of the book is actually about them. Most of it is background information. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but this book is not at all what it was advertised as. Mostly, it went off on huge tangents talking about history then halfheartedly tried to tie those into the story with throwaway lines such as "and so-and-so read about those events in the newspaper." Sadly, by the end I can't say that I learned anything about these women. The small parts about them were dropped in randomly. Mostly, it just goes over the bare facts of their lives. The narrative never came alive, and there was no emotional component. In trying to reduce the reading level, it seems the author reduced the quality of writing as well, because this felt like a long-winded book report written by a middleschooler. The amount of exclamation points used in this book was ridiculous. I've never read a biography with so many exclamation points. I expected this book to make me cry. Instead, the only reason I managed to finish it was because it was for bookclub. 

I'd like to think much of these complaints can be laid on the total rewrite that the author did for the YA version, but from everyone's comments at our bookclub meeting, the adult version suffered the same pitfalls. That version apparently does not discuss the women much either and goes off onto long tangents about various historical events. Upon finishing this version, I debated reading the adult version too so I could directly compare them but in the end decided it was not worth it. From the sound of it, the only difference is that the adult version has a ton of technical jargon.

Not only was the content disappointing, I was off-put by the author's tone. Rather than focusing on the inspirational side of the story, she spend a lot of time being negative. A lot of it is in between the lines, so at first I thought I was overreacting, but it seemed more and more pointed as the book went on. It makes broad racial assumptions. Whether you are saying something good or something bad, it is never ok to say that ALL of one race, nationality, gender, etc felt the same thing or acted the same way. That only perpetuates an "Us versus Them" attitude. But Shetterly repeatedly lumps all people into strict racial categories. For example, "African Americans were sympathetic to the needs of oppressed people around the world. They shared in the horror when they learned about the acts of the Germans against their Jewish citizens," and, "African Americans were loyal to their country. They had a deep and abiding belief in the possibility of democracy." These seem like positive statements on the surface, but as I mentioned, you can never say an entire people thought or did the same thing.

The other part of Shetterly's in-between-the-lines point was her dehumanizing of other races. She may have been trying to emphasize the segregation, but it seems very pointed that other than large historical figures (such as presidents, political leaders, civil rights activists, etc.), anyone who was not African American was referred to only by their title. The engineer, the governor, the manager, and so on. These titles were often linked with the announcement of their race such as "the mechanic, a white man" and "two white women, the West Computing section head and her assistant." By my notes, there were only two white people who had direct contact with the main characters whose names were told rather than just being referred to by their race and job title. Those would be Ted Skopinski, a helpful engineer, and Emma Jean, a colleague. And these are barely blips on the radar. Emma Jean is referred to as a "white colleague" before finally saying her name at the end of the paragraph. It makes it worse that this book was targeted to young children yet fails to provide inspiration. Yes, these women deserved to have their story told. Yes, young girls should get more encouragement to consider STEM careers. Does this book achieve either of those results? Not really. And I am suspicious of any book that gets its movie rights sold before the book is even finished. If this hadn't been immediately turned into a movie, I doubt anyone would be talking about this book, because it does not stand on its own in terms of merit. 

Overall, this book was not engaging or emotional or even that educational. I would not recommend it to anyone. It was a complete disappointment.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Character Development: 1 Star
Attention to Details: 2 Stars
Emotional Level: 1 Star
Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star

Matthew Royal

Good history of the role that women of color played in engineering, leading up to the well-known lunch counter sit-ins and US civil rights movement.

Very insightful analogy about racial segregation, comparing it to an electric fence -- even when the power is turned off, people are hesitant to climb over it. The self-selection of taking yourself out of a race before it's even begun, because of the belief that you can't win or the odds are stacked against you is powerful and real.

Kristen Claiborn

Let me preface by saying this story is great...it's a great history and these women were truly admirable and brave as hell. This book, however, wasn't all that great. The biggest problem I had was how much was in the story. It is SO full of information it almost became too difficult to follow. Had Shetterly focused on one or two of those women, it might have been easier to follow and thus a more enjoyable book for me. The sheer number of people involved in this story made it hard to know who was doing what and when without taking notes. After I finished the Game of Thrones books I swore to myself I would never read another book that required note-taking. Out of everything I read in that book, I remember being pretty upset that girls weren't allowed to participate in the soapbox derby...and that's about it.

Ryan LaFerney

Hidden Figures tells the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who blazed the trail for others to follow in the fields of mathematics and engineering at NASA. And while this is an incredibly important story in American history and in the history of the space race, I found Margot Lee Shetterly's book to be a bit dry. It wasn't terrible by any means but I would suggest watching the excellent film based on this book as opposed to reading this. Read this only if you really must supplement your film viewing experience.

Whitney Pickle

I absolutely loved the movie. I love this story. But I'm not rating on those, I'm rating on this book. This book is dry and boring.

Celeste Richardson

“I changed what I could, and what I couldn't, I endured.”
I’m a former history teacher, and yet I still somehow didn’t realize how large a role racism and segregation played in the Cold War. When I watched the movie inspired by this book with an American History class I was temporarily teaching, my eyes were opened to just how little I knew about the Cold War and Civil Rights eras, and how the two were so deeply entwined. I’m thankful for the information; I just wish I had realized it sooner. After having read the book as well, I have a new appreciation for the story overall, but also for the title of the book. I love anything with a dual meaning, and both the math behind these amazing advancement and the women who calculated them were indeed hidden figures.
“Their dark skin, their gender, their economic status--none of those were acceptable excuses for not giving the fullest rein to their imaginations and ambitions.”
I have so much respect for the women whose stories were so lovingly told through this book. They held themselves with such aplomb, when so many people would’ve been happy to watch them fail. Everything that both women and people of color had to put up with and endeavor to overcome during this period is infuriating, but the ways in which they rose to the challenge again and again was more than inspirational. I know that without their quiet determination and refusal to bow to pressure and make easier decisions, today’s Americans who share their gender or skin color or both would have fewer rights than we enjoy today.
“Women, on the other hand, had to wield their intellects like a scythe, hacking away against the stubborn underbrush of low expectations.” 
I’m glad to have read this book, because it shed so much more light on the women whose stories I came to know through the movie. However, I have to confess that I enjoyed the movie more, as I was able to develop more of an emotional connection to the women through that format. This preference is solely subjective; I’m just not a big nonfiction reader, and rarely develop deep emotional ties to works that aren’t fictional. I probably would’ve left my experience with Hidden Figures strictly to my consumption of the film if it wasn’t for my desire to read this year’s Hugo Award Winner: The Calculating Stars, which was surely inspired in large part by this powerful true story. I can’t wait to read The Calculating Stars, and I’m even more excited about it after having read Hidden Figures. I highly recommend this work of nonfiction to anyone interested in learning more about the women whose supporting roles in the sciences prepared the way for every girl who has ever been interested in STEM subjects, and for those who want to see the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War from a fresh perspective.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

Kyle S

A must read for anyone interested into the history of the space race.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

Charlotte Jones

I am so happy that I finally got to read/listen to this book! Learning about the lives of these women is compelling and inspiring. I definitely need to continue my search for more stories featuring women in science, as a woman in science.

Flavia Louise

This book was extremely fascinating. I loved listening to it.

Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA's African American women mathematicians to America's space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them despite their groundbreaking successes. Includes biographies on Dorothy Jackson Vaughan (1910-2008), Mary Winston Jackson (1921-2005), Katherine Colman Goble Johnson (1918- ), Dr. Christine Mann Darden (1942- ).

the true story of four Black women and the space race

Hidden figures

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

Beautifully picture book adaptation of Hidden Figures that we enjoyed having in our collection for our Grade 6 Scientists unit.

Wynn Netherland

Having loved the film of the same name, I was delighted to find the book devote so many chapters to the lives of these women at Langley during and just after WWII. The book goes deeper as you would expect in a historical narrative, but it also goes much broader than the movie. It includes fascinating accounts of women like the brilliant Dorothy Hoover who helped design wings for jet planes. 

The author holds in tension two compelling aspects of these stories: the struggle against segregation, sexism, and the "stubborn underbrush of low expectations" alongside the remarkable account of these technologists, in their prime, good at their jobs who worked on some of the most incredible human endeavors of the twentieth century.

Kerry Gibbons

Don't think that because you saw the movie there's no need to read this book. There were more than a few inaccuracies in the film but also the analysis of social issues and the Cold War is something I was acutely impressed by. 

One big example was that the author pointed out that the civil rights struggle in the US likely influenced emerging nations to choose to ally themselves with the USSR. If the US stands for freedom, how come all the people who aren't white don't have the same freedom? It was (and is) a great hypocrisy and since so many of these emerging nations of the 50s-70s were populated by people of color, what reason did they have to trust democracy? It's an effect I had never considered.

I just finished this book today! I will say that having watched the movie, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I would have liked. Hollywood did what Hollywood does and definitely oversimplified some things while totally exaggerating other things, making the movie much more dramatic than the book. Also, the movie showed all three women going through their independent struggles at the same time, whereas the book gave totally different timelines for each woman, and the women didn't interact much at all in the book. The women's goals were achieved without much fanfare in the book as well, because in general the book seemed to view Langley's segregation policies as more progressive than expected. The movie basically tied the story up in a nice neat little package with plenty of adverse action to overcome, whereas the book was a meandering timeline that didn't always flow well.

The writing was a bit technical and confusing at times, and Shetterly tended to switch gears from storytelling to historical context quite abruptly. I feel like the book could have been better laid out, as the chapter designations didn't always correlate with what was contained in them.

That said, I loved reading about the background to each of the three ladies and being introduced to so many other women who worked at Langley. I really appreciated the details Shetterly provided for the backgrounds of each of the women, and how they crossed paths (or almost did) before working at Langley. It also went far beyond Glenn's orbit into the moon landing and beyond, which I appreciated. Overall, the book was not what I expected after seeing the movie, but I learned a lot from it and I would recommend it to anyone interested, whether they've seen the movie or not.

my_bookalicious

I was really looking forward to read this book. I had heard lots of good things and with movie, I wanted to read the book before watching the movie.
But I was overwhelmed with details - so many women's biographies mix together plus historical background plus NACA progress, plus science details, plus plus plus.
I could have read school historical book and I would felt the same - full of dry facts and no "soul" or "warmth" after reading.
To bad because the topic is extremely interesting.

laura

I love listening to stories about untold histories and i love how complex this story was. It really showed me how without these women we would have never made it to space. It also explored so much other stuff like about american life at the time.

Malin Alexander

When you finish reading this on International Women's Day and it gives you all the feels...

Tannie Davidson

Accidentally ordered the wrong edition on Amazon. Fine for young adults I suppose. Bought the "grown up" edition and hopefully I like that better.

If I was solely rating subject matter and story line it would be a five, but factoring in writing style took this down to a four for me. The way it was written was very clinical. If it had been written with a little more personality it would have been a truly outstanding book. I still recommend it though.

abby donaldson

after having seen the movie, i was really excited to start this book. the reason for my fairly low rating is that i was disappointed with the focus, or in other words, lack of narrative on black women’s daily lives working as engineers. the book takes a more clinical and informative approach, which just wasn’t my cup of tea. although, i think the historical significance of this book - the development of science during and after the war as well as the slow transition to desegregation and racial integration - is an important aspect of this book that can not be overlooked despite the disappointing narrative.

Lynn Braden

Hidden Figures is the story of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden who during one of the most turbulent periods in US history defied expectations and became respected workers in what became NASA. Their expertise in mathematics made them invaluable during the period of World War II and the space race of the 1960s. Their lives were not without strife as they survived family tragedies and worked with people who still harbored ill will toward African-Americans during the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.

This was an interesting story. It would have been better reading had it been told from the point of view of the women involved, telling their own stories rather than as a dry depiction of historical events. Otherwise this was a well written book detailing a unique group of women who succeeded in what was considered a man's world during a time when African-Americans lacked the respect of their peers.

Hidden Figures The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

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