Mae Jemison

Title: Mae Jemison
Genre: Non-Fiction
Author: Sonia W. Black
Awards: N/A
Age Group: 9 to 12-year-olds

Teacher Evaluation: As a teacher, I would keep this chapter book in my 3rd-grade classroom library. This book may be a great choice for children interested in space exploration, NASA, and Mae Jamison. It would also be a great source for a report on Mae Jemison.

Summary: This chapter book is a biography of Mae Jemison the first African American woman to become a NASA astronaut. The book begins with the introduction describing the return of the space shuttle Endeavor. The space shuttle is returning from its mission and onboard its 7-member team is Mae Jemison. Following the book's introduction, the book chronologically describes Mae Jemison's life and journey to becoming the first African American NASA astronaut. As a child, Mae always had big dreams and many time people did not support her dreams. Mae never got discouraged by the remarks of other people, in a direct quote the book describes that Mae always knew she would reach her dreams of going to outer space. The book goes on describing Mae's education and how she was a very good and involved student. The book discusses her jobs prior to NASA and the reasoning she had for wanting to do those jobs. The book then describes how she got into the NAA Space program and includes actual photos of her training. Towards the end of the book, the author describes Mae's mission to carry out scientific experiments in outer space on frogs. The book ends with Mae's return to Earth and her life following her time with NASA.