Dancing through Space: Dr. Mae Jemison Soars to New Heights

by Lydia Lukidis, Sawyer Cloud (Illustrator)

Overview

"A quick but lyrical character study."—Kirkus Reviews
"The sky proves no limit in Lukidis’s encouraging biography of Black female astronaut Mae Jemison."—Publishers Weekly
“This makes a good addition to STEAM literature.” — Booklist 

The true story of Dr. Mae Jemison, whose lifelong passions of science and dance prepared her to become a trailblazing astronaut.

Today, Dr. Mae Jemison is famous for being the first Black woman to travel into outer space. But when she was growing up, she felt torn between two passions: science and dance. It seemed like an impossible choice. There had to be some way to make room for both—and Mae found one. As an adult, she combined her gifts of scientific logic and artistic creativity and became an astronaut.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807514580
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	04/04/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	439,417
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD640L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lydia Lukidis is the author of more than fifty trade and educational children's books. Her titles include Deep, Deep Down and The Broken Bees’ Nest, which was nominated for a CYBILS Award. A STEAM enthusiast from a young age, Lydia now incorporates her studies in art and science into her books. She lives in Quebec, Canada, with her daughter.

Sawyer Cloud is a self-taught artist living in Madagascar, her birth country. She is a passionate artist with a huge interest in dreams and freedom. Her previous titles include The Juneteenth Story and Sugar Pie Lullaby, among many others. Sawyer loves music and has a long list of dreams to accomplish, including traveling around the world.

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

The sky proves no limit in Lukidis’s encouraging biography of Black female astronaut Mae Jemison (b. 1956). Facing pages use mirroring prose to showcase the figure’s twin loves—science and dance—as she pursues each, first with youthful passion and then with adult discipline. Through the study of science, Jemison develops “courage” and her mind becomes “strong and sharp.” Meanwhile, dance offers lessons in “determination,” and shapes her body so that it’s “strong and muscular.” Undergraduate studies in chemical engineering (where Jemison is one of only a few women and there are “none who looked like her”) lead her to medical school. Early interest in space inspires her to apply to NASA’s highly competitive astronaut training program, and despite an initial setback, she soon “danced through space.” Mapped closely to text, Cloud’s unlined renderings picture the subject studying and dancing with satisfying emotion as an uncomplicated portrait of Jemison emerges. An author’s note and timeline conclude. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

This makes a good addition to STEAM literature.” — Booklist

“This makes a good addition to STEAM literature.” — Booklist

"The sky proves no limit in Lukidis’s encouraging biography of Black female astronaut Mae Jemison."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2024-01-20
Early passions for science and for dance rocketed Mae Jemison into Earth’s orbit.

When introducing a young Mae, whose curiosity about the natural world was equaled only by her inability to sit still, Lukidis frames her brief portrait of the future astronaut around those twin qualities. So it was that science “gave her courage” and dance “gave her determination” to complete her medical studies, keep her body flexible and strong, and weather setbacks on the way to becoming “the first Black woman to fly into space.” As the shuttle orbited “in a slow choreography,” the author writes, Jemison “danced through space / and floated among the stars.” In Cloud’s illustrations, she stands out both for her balletic poses (on the ground as well as in microgravity) and as the one whose eyes are almost continually looking up and forward. In an afterword, the author includes a quote from Jemison about how science and dance are linked; Lukidis explains that the two “work together to give us a fuller understanding of who we are.” Along with adding further biographical detail, the closing timeline notes that Jemison was inspired by her own role models, astronaut Sally Ride and Star Trek actor Nichelle Nichols, to apply for the space program.

A quick but lyrical character study. (Picture-book biography. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews