Sally Ride

Title: Sally Ride
Author: Pamela Hill Nettleton
Publisher: Picture Window Books
Copyright: 2004 by Picture Window Books
Pages: 24 Pages
Ages: 9-12
Genre: Non-fiction

Summary:
In 1983 Sally Ride was the first woman into outer space. She didn’t always want to be an astronaut. First she wanted to be a baseball player, then a tennis player and then an astronaut. Her parents encouraged her and her sister to be what they wanted to be. Sally had always been an athlete and loved sports. She continued her education instead of having a career in tennis. Her teacher helped her realize that Science and math were fun. After graduate school she applied to the NASA program. Only 35 out of 8000 were chosen and only 6 were women. She endured many tests. She learned to fly in high-speed jets, and learned about gravity and to do things while floating. After 5 years Sally and the other Astronauts were ready to ride the Challenger. Sally was 32 years old. Finally the day came and she and the other astronauts went up an elevator and into the shuttle. The shuttle shot up and they were in space. They were in space for six days. Sally and the other astronauts did experiments for that time and they released a satellite. Sally had the best time of her life. She was an astronaut for 8 years. She was able to fly into space once more and when the Challenger later exploded with another crew on board, she helped figure out how it happened. And finally in 1989 Sally became a physics teacher at the University of California. She encourages girls to study math and science.

Who would I recommend this to?
I would recommend this to everyone. But I would more specifically recommend this to girls. To encourage them to fulfill their dreams.

Possible Problems:
I don’t see any problems with this book.

My Reaction:
I enjoyed reading about Sally Ride. I didn’t know her story until now. I didn’t particularly like the illustrations. They seemed flat and boring, but I did enjoy the story.