Jim Ottaviani

I'm not especially interested in space travel, but this book is so much more than that. If you're interested in stories of amazing women, or history, or teamwork, read this. It's fairly quick, but also has a lot of information, and it's for all ages from about 8 up. I particularly appreciated that the conservative influencers were reminded again and again that diverse talents, perspectives, and even sizes of members on the team are important. Group think, for example, is a real problem.

There's plenty of humor both in narration and pictures. I particularly liked one of the last funny pictures, the one in which Dr. Cleave gets a high five from an ape. You'll have to read to find out the context, though. It's both a serious read, and a joyous one, and I highly recommend it.… (more)

There's a lot of information packed into this graphic novel non-fiction book, and while it's geared at kids it's still easily accessible and enjoyable for an adult to read. There was a lot of information that I already knew here (like the men at NASA thinking that 100 tampons for a 1 week trip was a reasonable amount) but also a lot that I didn't. For example, I didn't know before this that the first woman in space was Russian.

I really appreciated that instead of presenting this as a straight history book, they used Mary Cleave as a narrator for the book, making it feel more like a memoir. (Cleave was interviewed especially for the book, and it shows.) Having a narrator like that gave the author & artist someone to focus the story through, someone to make the history feel more personal.… (more)

Absolutely fascinating read about a man I knew next to nothing about. Ottaviani uses voice supremely well, and Purvis' art is colorful and engaging. Although there were a couple of Turing's ideas I had trouble wrapping my head around, I never felt lost within the story itself. The end felt a little abrupt and was bereft of dialogue. Given the chatty nature of the rest of the book, I suspect this was a stylistic choice rather an an editorial one. As much as I enjoyed it, however, I don't know that there's much kid appeal until late high school at the earliest.… (more)