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Title details for Rocket Girl by George D. Morgan - Available

Rocket Girl

The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's First Female Rocket Scientist

by George D. Morgan
Ashley Stroupe
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
In 1938, a young German rocket enthusiast named Wernher von Braun had dreams of building a rocket that could fly him to the moon. In Ray, North Dakota, a young farm girl named Mary Sherman was attending high school. In an age when girls rarely dreamed of a career in science, Mary wanted to be a chemist. A decade later the dreams of these two disparate individuals would coalesce in ways neither could have imagined.

World War II and the Cold War space race with the Russians changed the fates of both von Braun and Mary Sherman Morgan. When von Braun and other top engineers could not find a solution to the repeated failures that plagued the nascent U.S. rocket program, North American Aviation, where Sherman Morgan then worked, was given the challenge. Recognizing her talent for chemistry, company management turned the assignment over to young Mary.
In the end, America succeeded in launching rockets into space, but only because of the joint efforts of the brilliant farm girl from North Dakota and the famous German scientist. While von Braun went on to become a high-profile figure in NASA's manned space flight, Mary Sherman Morgan and her contributions fell into obscurity—until now.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 8, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781541490376
      • File size: 257610 KB
      • Duration: 08:56:41

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The choice of a man to narrate the biography of a woman could have been awkward, but in this case it's entirely appropriate. This portrait of Mary Sherman Morgan, America's first female rocket scientist, is written by her son. The third-person narrative is interlaced with first-person reflections and anecdotes. Joe Barrett offers a solid reading. Listeners will easily come to think of his voice as that of the author. He offers hints of accents in some of the quotes, including a Scandinavian-North Dakota intonation for Mary. While Mary Morgan was involved in highly technical work, the book covers it in easy-to-follow terms that facilitate listening. Overall, the audiobook is structured like a detective story, with the author as the sleuth, in this case uncovering his mother's classified career. This framework also enhances the audio experience. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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