Windows & Mirrors: HIDDEN FIGURES by Margot Lee Shetterly

Welcome to Windows & Mirrors where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.

March is Women’s History Month, so today we are featuring Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. Hidden Figures is the untold story of the black women mathematicians who helped win the space race.

My daughter and I saw Hidden Figures in the theater and were cheering for the characters by the end, so I felt confident that the book would have appeal for Winged Pen readers. We loved the interwoven stories of the talented mathematicians who not only took on work that would be challenging to someone of either gender and any skin-color, but at the same time also had to push through the limits American society placed on black women. And they did it with class.

Katherine Johnson pushed to get her work taken seriously, positioning herself to undertake leading-edge thinking on the mathematics of getting astronauts into space. At John Glenn’s request, she checked the orbital trajectory computed by the newly-installed IBM electronic computer for America’s first manned space flight. Mary Jackson pushed limits by getting the education required to become an engineer, including taking classes at a whites-only school because key classes weren’t taught elsewhere. She used her engineering skills to conduct experiments on flight in the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor agency to NASA) wind tunnels.

Dorothy Vaugh managed the West Computing group at NACA , helping many black women to launch and advance their careers. She also transformed her own career and those of colleagues as computing transitioned from something done by people using slide rules and calculating machines to something done using the first electronic computers. Dorothy saw the future of electronic computers, educated herself in programming, and encouraged others to embrace this technological advance. In each of these stories, the women combined the intelligence necessary to take on exacting work with the drive to overcome obstacles society put in their way.

I learned a lot from the book because it provided deeper historical context than the movie – how the timing of these women’s lives and work tied into Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous I Have a Dream speech, and the adoption of equal-opportunity legislation.

I usually stand firmly in “the book was better” camp, but for Hidden Figures, I recommend both the book and the movie! Delve more deeply into these women’s stories and their historic significance with the book and the see their stories come to life in the movie!

I read the adult version of Hidden Figures, but there is a young readers’ version too and, in January 2018, the picture book version was published. It’s gorgeously illustrated and makes the story of these American heroes come to life for the youngest of readers. It was recently featured in Brightly’s 18 Must-Read Picture Books of 2018. According to Brightly, it “Will inspire girls and boys alike to love math, believe in themselves, and reach for the stars.” We agree!