Blast Off!: How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space [Hardcover]

A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids

The inspirational story of Mary Sherman, the world's first female rocket scientist, who overcame gender barriers and many failures to succeed.

Growing up in the 1920s on a dirt-poor farm in North Dakota, Mary Sherman's life was filled with chores--until she finally began school and discovered she loved to learn.
 
Mary excelled at science, especially chemistry, and leaped at the chance to work in a laboratory during World War II designing rocket fuels. And when the US decided to enter the space race, Mary was chosen over her male colleagues to create the fuel to launch a rocket carrying America's first satellite.
 
With courage and perseverance, Mary's hard work and calculations paid off, opening up a brand-new frontier for exploration. This STEM biography of an unsung and courageous woman in science will inspire and motivate young readers.A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids
NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book

Prolific STEM writer Slade spotlights Mary Sherman Morgan (1921-2004) and her role in the launch of the US’s first successful satellite. Comport’s lively illustrations—rendered using color pencil, traditional collage, digital collage, and digital paint—combine dramatic perspectives, facsimiles of space-race ephemera, and collaged STEM equations, enhancing Slade’s spry narrative. A respectful, important tribute to an instrumental rocket scientist. —Kirkus Reviews

Slade...follows noted chemist Morgan from her North Dakota childhood working on the family farm to the triumph of watching the rocket that launched the U.S.’s first satellite into Earth’s orbit—using fuel she developed—with many obstacles and challel3)