Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer
Mary Golda Ross, a Cherokee woman, excelled at math from the time she was a teenager in the 1920s. Mary began attending college at 16, and later taught high school math and science before she began working as a mathematician for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Wanting to move into engineering, she took additional classes and was eventually selected to be part of a secret team researching orbiting satellites for the space race; their work was classified, and much of it remains classified today. Across her career, Mary helped recruit and support Native people and young women interested in engineering; doing so was one of the many ways she lived the four Cherokee values (humility, working cooperatively, gaining life skills in all areas, and helping others access equal opportunity and education). Pencil, ink, and digital illustrations accompany a narrative that ends with a timeline, author’s note, source notes, and bibliography, and the four Cherokee values in both the Cherokee syllabary and English. ©2022 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Natasha Donovan
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 7-10
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Formats:
Biography, Autobiography and Memoir
Picture book
Subjects:
20th Century
Biography
Cherokee People
Engineering and Engineers
First/Native Nations
Girls and Women
Math and Mathematicians
Teachers/Mentors
Diversity subject:
Indigenous
Publishers:
Lerner, Millbrook
Publish Year: 2021
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781541579149
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 920 Ross