Trailblazers

July 4, 2016
Swaby adapts her 2015 book for adults, Headstrong, for a younger audience, profiling 33 women who made strides in science, medicine, and technology. The biographies detail the roots of the women’s intellectual curiosity and the circumstances that led to their successes, despite what were often tremendous odds. In the 18th century, Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi created an expansive text that “would provide generations of Italian children with a solid and well-rounded mathematics education,” while doctor Virginia Apgar was an early pioneer of anesthesiology. The descriptions of the women’s lives often have a quiet poetry: astronomer Maria Mitchell worked in a rooftop observatory “amid spiders and bugs and a stray cat, on both frigid nights and warm ones.” Readers with scientific ambitions of their own will find much to admire in these accomplished and unconventional women. Ages 10–up. Agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, New Leaf Literary & Media.

With STEM now the hot trend in education and concerted efforts to encourage girls to explore scientific fields, this collective biography is most timely.Swaby offers 33 brief profiles of some of the world's most influential women in science, organized in loose groupings: technology and innovation, earth and stars, health and medicine, and biology. Some of the figures, such as Mary Anning, Rachel Carson, Florence Nightingale, Sally Ride, and Marie Tharp, have been written about for young readers, but most have not. Among the lesser known are Stephanie Kwolek, the American chemist who invented Kevlar; Yvonne Brill, the Canadian engineer who invented a thruster used in satellites; Elsie Widdowson, the British nutritionist who demonstrated how important fluid and salt are for the body to properly function; and Italian neuroembryologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who made breakthrough discoveries in nerve-cell growth. Swaby emphasizes that most of these scientists had to overcome great obstacles before achieving their successes and receiving recognition due to gender-based discrimination. She also notes that people are not born brilliant scientists and that it's through repeated observation, experimentation, and testing of ideas that important discoveries are made. An interesting, engaging collection of snapshot profiles that will encourage readers to explore further and perhaps pursue their own scientific curiosities. (source notes, bibliography) (Collective biography. 10-14) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016

Gr 5-8-Focusing on the fields of technology, astronomy, medicine, and biology, Swaby provides brief introductions to 33 women renowned for their scientific contributions. She includes well-known names such as Hedy Lamarr, Sally Ride, and Florence Nightingale, along with lesser-known figures such as Ruth Benerito, Emmy Noether, and Maria Sibylla Merian. Each chapter informs readers of the subject's discoveries and contributions to her respective fields as well as the struggles she encountered, mostly because of gender. Though the book is well written, the material is scant and readers will be left longing for more on the personal and professional achievements of the subjects. However, it does present women who are not usually found in other books, and that would perhaps encourage readers to explore more on their own. VERDICT Though this title does a suitable job bringing attention to women scientists who are frequently ignored, readers would be better served by Pendred E. Noyce's comprehensive and appealing Magnificent Minds: 16 Pioneering Women in Science and Medicine and Remarkable Minds: 17 More Pioneering Women in Science and Medicine.-Margaret Nunes, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA

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