"Everything was so new—the whole idea of going into space was new and daring."

—Katherine Johnson

At six years old, instead of starting her first day in kindergarten, Katherine Johnson went straight to second grade. Instead of starting third grade, Katherine wen to fifth. At a time when schools were segregated in the South, Katherine excelled despite living at a time of racism and sexism. And that was just the beginning of Katherine breaking boundaries. She was given a full scholarship at age fifteen when high school ended and the Great Depression began and college seemed unlikely.

During the labor shortage of World War II, when so many were in the military overseas, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory needed mathematicians to help chart the space program. Katherine was one of the black women in the human "computing" group called on to plot the path of the spacecraft from the moment of its descent into the Atlantic Ocean. It is because of Katherine Johnson and other human computers like her that NASA successfully launched flights into space and eventually to the moon.

NASA scientist Katharine Johnson, featured in the movie Hidden Figures, is an extraordinary inspiration for anyone who wants to follow a dream.

From the dust jacket