Sibert Award 2010 Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick) review

Sibert Honor Books

•The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors written by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tony Persiani (Charlesbridge) review to come
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Jackson/Atheneum) review
• Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Kroupa/FSG) review

How the Horn Book reviewed the winners

Tanya Lee Stone  Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
      Candlewick
      Reviewed 3/09
In the early 1960s, William Randolph Lovelace II, the NASA doctor who administered the rigorous physical and psychological tests to the men who would become the first U.S. astronauts, wondered if it might be feasible for women to become astronauts as well. The story of the ultimately unsuccessful effort to get women into NASA’s Mercury astronaut training program is meticulously researched and thrillingly told by Stone using first- and second-hand sources, including interviews with many of the women who participated in Lovelace’s tests, and a set of outstanding historical photographs. Nineteen women with extensive flight experience and a desire to be a part of one of the most exciting periods in American history eagerly signed up to go through the testing; thirteen, including the exceptionally qualified Jerrie Cobb, passed. Despite very public efforts by the group to get NASA to accept women, they were rejected (and, in fact, NASA didn’t accept women or people of color until 1978). There is no sugarcoating here — Stone presents the full story of early-sixties public discourse about women’s capabilities and clearly shows the personal, political, and physical risks taken by the women in pursuit of their dream. The details will likely be a revelation for the intended middle- and high-school audience, who may be surprised to find the world of their grandmothers’ childhoods a far cry from their own. Extensive bibliographies and endnotes are appended. D.J.F.

Chris Barton  The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors; illus. by Tony Persiani
      Charlesbridge
      Review to come

Brian Floca  Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11; illus. by the author
      Jackson/Atheneum
      Reviewed 5/09
This fortieth anniversary year of the moon landing will likely see many books published on the topic; Floca’s visually sublime picture book will rise above most. Clearly he has researched his subject thoroughly, as indicated by the opening timeline and diagram on one set of end pages, the source notes opposite the title page, and the extended discussion on the closing end pages. Yet Floca distills all of his gathered knowledge into a concise text, selecting the exact details to transform science into relatable experience: “Here below / there are three men / who close themselves / in special clothes, / who — click — lock hands / in heavy gloves, / who — click — lock heads / in large, round helmets.” Throughout the book Floca engages the reader both with his spare lyricism and with his watercolor and ink pictures. He uses the format to perfection, with large pictures to communicate size, power, and perspective; sequenced panels to show steps unfolding; and small pictures to catch particular moments. The artistry in book design and illustration is demonstrated by such stunning double-page spreads as the one containing the word liftoff, which shows just the bottom of the immense rocket as it begins to rise. Libraries will be dismayed by endpapers filled with important information, some of which may get covered up; but the heart of the book is complete and intact within, allowing children to be drawn into the wonder of the first moonwalk. S.D.L.

Phillip Hoose  Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
   Kroupa/Farrar
   Reviewed 3/09
It’s 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, and fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin is in the thick of things. She refuses to give up her seat on the bus (nine months before Rosa Parks) and is also one of the plaintiffs in the federal case that ends segregated buses, yet her story remains largely unknown. Hoose fashions a compelling narrative that balances the momentous events of the civil rights movement with the personal crises of a courageous young woman. Because Claudette was young, pregnant, and unwed, it was the more respectable Rosa Parks who was thrust into the national spotlight as the face of the movement. But Claudette’s story is no less inspiring, and Hoose reasserts her place in history with this vivid and dramatic account, complemented with photographs, sidebars, and liberal excerpts from interviews conducted with Colvin. Recent books have done a commendable job of exploring the civil rights movement beyond the iconic figures of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks — A Dream of Freedom by Diane McWhorter, Freedom Riders by Ann Bausum, Freedom Walkers by Russell Freedman — and Hoose’s thoughtful book now joins their ranks. J.H.

2010 ALA awards