Author: Anastasia Suen

From her studio in Northern California, developmental editor Anastasia Suen reads, writes, and edits books for creators of all ages.
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Reaching for the Moon

Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson
by Katherine Johnson (Author)

Booktalk: As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with the support of a professor who saw great promise in her. But ability and opportunity did not always go hand in hand. As an African American and a girl growing up in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges. Still, she lived her life with her father’s words in mind: “You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you.”

In the early 1950s, Katherine was thrilled to join the organization that would become NASA. She worked on many of NASA’s biggest projects including the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon.

Snippet: “There is some sort of secret government project out here on the Virginia peninsula, and they are looking for Colored women who are mathematicians,” Eric told me.

“Really!?”

“They call the women ‘computers,’ Katherine,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what they do. But do you think you might be interested?”

“Yes. I want to hear more!”

“Well, I know several women who do that job. I think I can help you get on.”

After the fire we needed a fresh start. So we packed up and moved the 358 miles east to the Hampton Roads area, the largest ice-free harbor in the United States and home to some of the nation’s most important military installations. With so many military bases there, there were lots of jobs in the area.

Nonfiction Monday

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Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

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Susan B. Anthony: The Making of America

Susan B. Anthony: The Making of America
by Teri Kanefield (Author)

Booktalk: America’s famous suffragette Susan B. Anthony was born into a world in which men ruled women: A man could beat his wife, take her earnings, have her committed into an asylum based on his word, and take her children away from her. While the young nation was ablaze with the radical notion that people could govern themselves, “people” were understood to be white and male. Women were expected to stay out of public life and debates. Anthony began her public career as a radical abolitionist, and after the Civil War, she became an international figurehead of the women’s suffrage movement.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

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The Apollo Missions for Kids

The Apollo Missions for Kids: The People and Engineering Behind the Race to the Moon, with 21 Activities
by Jerome Pohlen (Author)

Booktalk: In addition to learning about ALL of the Apollo missions, readers can prepare for #Apollo50 next month with these 21 hands-on activities, that include:

  • Determining what they would weigh on the moon
  • Learning to identify the moon’s features
  • Demonstrating orbital mechanics with a marble and a shallow bowl
  • Calculating how far away the moon is using sports equipment
  • Recreating the shape and size of the command module
  • Eating like an astronaut and making “space food”
  • Designing a mission patch

Snippet:
Moongazing
First, locate Tycho, the large white crater on the lunar map above. This will help you determine north and south. The full moon will appear to be lying on its left side if you look at it just after sundown and on its right side just before sunrise. Also, if you look at moon with a telescope, everything will be inverted–upside down–or mirrored left to right.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

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O Captain, My Captain

O Captain, My Captain: Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War
by Robert Burleigh (Author)and Sterling Hundley (Illustrator)

Booktalk: The story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents. Whitman and Lincoln shared the national stage in Washington, DC, during the Civil War. Though the two men never met, Whitman would often see Lincoln’s carriage on the road. The president was never far from the poet’s mind, and Lincoln’s “grace under pressure” was something Whitman returned to again and again in his poetry. Whitman witnessed Lincoln’s second inauguration and mourned along with America as Lincoln’s funeral train wound its way across the landscape to his final resting place. The book includes the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” and an excerpt from “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” brief bios of Lincoln and Whitman, a timeline of Civil War events, endnotes, and a bibliography.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.