101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science by Claire Philip

 

101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science by Claire Philip

4.25 stars

The STEM field has a large hidden variety of women who have paved the way and made grand strands toward science. Most of these women are never mentioned in a science class and the only way you know about them is if you come across a movie, book, or news article (maybe a Buzzfeed or blogger list). I, personally am not a science or math inclined individual. I excelled at math when I was younger, but I progressively got older the subject and I didn’t always click well. Science has and never will be my foray. However, I greatly appreciate hearing stories and testimonies of the lives’ of scientists. Their lives have always fascinated me and I would much rather have glimpses into the person than only hearing about their discoveries, especially since most discoveries occur because of who they are as a person. This little illustrated book for young children is a great introductory resource if you have little ones who love science, math, animals or video games. This book covers a wide variety of scientists, mathematicians, and inventors. There is something for everyone and that makes this book so much fun. I’m definitely not the target demographic, but I teach high school students and I can see a lot of them enjoying this if it was in a classroom. I also encourage parents and family members to consider purchasing this book as a gift. The illustrations are excellent and the facts are not too complicated to understand. There is a glossary in the back for concepts they may not be familiar with as well.


Here is a list of some of my favorite women that I got to learn about (so many new ones I had never heard of before):
*Merit Ptah (first female doctor)
*Agnodice (doctor who pretended to be a man and changed gender laws)
*Trota of Salerno (medical scientist)
*Saint Hildegard of Bingen (polymath- prophetic nun who became the first German female physician)
*Catherine Charlotte de la Gardie (vaccination pioneer who stopped the last witch trial in Sweden- please someone make a film about this)
*Sarah Guppy (inventor- mainly bridges)
*Hertha Ayrton (inventor who created a fan that dispersed mustard gas in WWI)
*Regina Fleszarowa (geologist who hid Jews from Nazis and held secret meetings for librarians)
*Alice Augusta Ball (chemist who focused on curing leprosy)
*Maria Goeppert Mayer (physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project)
*Rachel Carson (marine biologist and advocate against pesticides)
*Joy Adamson (naturalist who worked with lion cubs and other African wildlife- she was murdered viciously and solved)
*Dorothy Johnson Vaughan (mathematical engineer, one of the ladies from Hidden Figures)
*Astrid Loken (entomologist and wartime spy who focused on bumblebees and the dopest woman in this whole book!)
*Joan Clarke (mathematician who also helped develop a decoding system that change the course of WWII)
*Kateryna Yuschenko (computer scientist and mathematician who writes awesome poetry)
*Mary Jackson (mathematician and the real MVP of being allowed the right to attend an all-white high school to get her engineering degree to work at NASA)
*Eugenie Clark (marine biologist who dived until she was 92)
*Dian Fossey (primatologist and conversation who worked with endangered gorillas; she was also tragically murdered by a colleague who has not been charged)
*Sally Ride (astronaut and advocate against wearing makeup in space because gender roles should not still be a thing)
*Mae Carol Jemison (first female African-American in space)
*Chieko Asakawa (computer scientist who lost her sight as a teen and made inventions for the visually impaired to help them access the web)

My one major critique is that there is a large portion of the book (in the middle) where there is barely information and the women’s stories are just glossed over and given only one page. Also, if you are worried about whether this book acknowledges violence, it does not. Two primate conversationalists were famously murdered and their deaths are regarded as “dying tragically”. However, besides that I would highly recommend this book to any girl who loves anything related to the STEM field or history.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.25

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: I love the cover for this one so much! It does a great job of highlighting the wonderful illustrations inside.

Thank you, Netgalley and Arcturus Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Have you read 101 Awesome Women Who Transformed Science? Do you plan to or want to buy it for a girl in your life who loves something in the STEM field? Let me know down below in the comments!