Columnist Bernie Goedhart on the book Counting on Katherine

Helaine Becker, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk Henry Holt & Co. Ages 5-9

Adults reading this book aloud to a child may experience a sense of déjà vu: If they saw the 2016 film Hidden Figures, they will have already encountered Katherine Johnson’s remarkable story.

Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13, by Toronto’s Helaine Becker and illustrated by Colorado’s Dow Phumiruk, another biographical picture book, introduces children to a little girl who loved learning — and especially loved numbers. Born in 1918, she skipped several grades and was ready for high school at the age of 10. But her hometown’s high school didn’t admit black students of any age (the author tells us “America was legally segregated by race” at the time). Luckily, Katherine had supportive parents and her father moved the family to a town with a black high school. She graduated at 14 and finished college at 18. She became a school teacher, but longed to be a research mathematician. In 1953, she got a job as a “computer” at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory and five years later became an aerospace technologist when her team joined NASA. (Adults reading this book aloud to a child may experience a sense of déjà vu: If they saw the 2016 film Hidden Figures, they will have already encountered Katherine Johnson’s remarkable story.) All kids are bound to applaud Katherine’s accomplishments, but girls especially will take heart at the way she applied herself to math and followed her passion, even when others stood in her way or gave her the tasks men found too boring. In the end, she helped save the crew of Apollo 13 with her skills — even though she always said it was a team effort.