Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker - ESSENTIAL

Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk. PICTURE BOOK/NON-FICTION. Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt and Company), 2018. $18. 9781250137524

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - ESSENTIAL.

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Katherine is a young black student who excels at school only to find there is no black high school in her town. Her parents make sacrifices for the family to move and Katherine’s education progresses until she becomes a teacher and then a computer for NACA (later known as NASA). She is involved in several space missions and is instrumental in using math to help solve the problems that occurred when Apollo 13 had an explosion. 

I loved this book. It is fun to read about girls good at math and girls making an impact in a man’s world, and add to that a black girl during a time of segregation. The illustrations are realistic but still bright and engaging. After my first reading, I was disappointed that it appeared the illustrator had “white-washed” Katherine, but I looked up pictures and she was indeed light skinned. I will say that Katherine Johnson has been a popular subject of picture books lately and this one is pretty comparable in quality (all high) to others, so I don’t know if duplicating her story in a library is necessary. 

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher