From the Publisher
"A buoyant profile of Yvonne Clark (1929-2019), a lifelong tinkerer with a knack for making everything work better, from the family toaster to giant rockets... Inspirational fare for aspiring engineers and scientists." —Kirkus
"Bright coloring enlivens Hodge’s slick, chunky digital artwork... and pages bedazzled with comic book–style stars amplify the text’s snappy, often punning articulation of how passion’s “spark” can yield superhero-like powers." —Publishers Weekly
"Cheerful cartoonlike illustrations effectively convey Yvonne’s curiosity... an inspiring tribute to a woman who knew herself and followed her dreams." —Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
2024-09-28
A buoyant profile of Yvonne Clark (1929-2019), a lifelong tinkerer with a knack for making everything work better, from the family toaster to giant rockets.
Dubbing his former college teacher’s “remarkable spark for building and fixing things” a “superpower,” Wells takes her through a series of hands-on projects—beginning with malfunctioning household appliances that she methodically disassembled and studied as a child to later work solving pesky design problems in both a new type of rifle and in NASA’s humongous Saturn V rocket. The author also celebrates the stubborn determination that won Clark a post–World War II career in mechanical engineering and a university position despite the discrimination she encountered as a Black woman in a field dominated by white men. From overall-clad child to brisk, sensibly attired adult, her confidence and strength of character shine in Hodge’s illustrations as she wields hand tools, pores over blueprints, marches into groups of stymied-looking male colleagues to explain her solutions, and climactically stands in quiet triumph with a racially diverse group of children to watch the successful 1967 test launch of the first unmanned Saturn V rocket. That same confidence radiates from the appended photos, which take her from teenager to octogenarian.
Inspirational fare for aspiring engineers and scientists. (author’s note, selected bibliography)(Picture-book biography. 7-9)
