Through the Telescope: Mae Jemison Dreams of Space

PreS-Gr 3–Lyrical text captures Jemison’s transformation from stargazing child to adult astronaut in this richly illustrated picture book. Smith seamlessly incorporates scientific terms, such as exosphere and light years into his poetic description of a young girl peering through her telescope and dreaming of one day reaching the stars. Repetition gives a sense of the time and patience required to reach her goal. “Someday someday someday dreamed Mae, through a telescope on Earth, Chicago, USA.” Sights young Mae would have seen, such as planets and constellations, glow with jewel-like intensity against the vast blackness of space. The young dreamer’s eyes glitter with stars just like the “Billions of galaxies” she ponders. Astronomical details, such as the distance measured in a light year, are balanced with a sense of delight as Mae winks at readers from behind one of the zeroes in that number. Readers will be inspired with their own galactic ambitions after pondering “How do you measure a distance that far?” A “Mae Jemison Countdown” begins with her birth and ends at her historic flight to round out the book.