• Age: 7 to 11
• Grade: 2 to 5
• Reading age: 8 to 9

An American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award Honor Picture BookMary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's first female engineer. Find out how her passion for math and the Cherokee values she was raised with shaped her life and work. Cherokee author Traci Sorell and Métis illustrator Natasha Donovan trace Ross's journey from being the only girl in a high school math class to becoming a teacher to pursuing an engineering degree, joining the top-secret Skunk Works division of Lockheed, and being a mentor for Native Americans and young women interested in engineering. In addition, the narrative highlights Cherokee values including education, working cooperatively, remaining humble, and helping ensure equal opportunity and education for all."A stellar addition to the genre that will launch careers and inspire for generations, it deserves space alongside stories of other world leaders and innovators."—starred, Kirkus Reviews

Traci Sorell writes fiction and nonfiction books as well as poems for children. Her lyrical story in verse, At the Mountain's Base, illustrated by Weshoyot Alvitre (Kokila, 2019), celebrates the bonds of family and the history of history-making women pilots, including Millie Rexroat (Oglala Lakota). Her middle grade novel, Indian No More, with Charlene Willing McManis (Tu Books, 2019), explores the impact of federal termination and relocation policies on an Umpqua family in the 1950s. Traci's debut nonfiction picture book, We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, illustrated by Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge, 2018), won a Sibert Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Honor and an Orbis Pictus Honor. It also received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, The Horn Book and Shelf Awareness. A former federal Indian law attorney and policy advocate, she is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lives in northeastern Oklahoma where her tribe is located. For more about Traci and her other works, visit www.tracisorell.com.

Traci Sorell's profile page

Natasha Donovan is the illustrator of the award-winning Mothers of Xsan series (written by Brett Huson). She illustrated the graphic novel Surviving the City (written by Tasha Spillett), which won a Manitoba Book Award and received an American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA) honor. She also illustrated Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer which won an Orbis Pictus Honor Book and an American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA). Natasha is Métis, and spent her early life in Vancouver, British Columbia. Although she moved to the United States to marry a mathematician, she prefers to keep her own calculations to the world of color and line. She lives in Washington. www.natashadonovan.com

Natasha Donovan's profile page

• Nominated, South Dakota Library Association Children's Book Awards
• Winner, ALSC Summer Reading List
• Commended, Septima Clark Book Award
• Commended, American Indian Youth Literature Awards
• Winner, Rise: A Feminist Book Project List
• Winner, Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year
• Commended, Mathical: Books for Kids from Tots to Teens
• Short-listed, Orbis Pictus Award
• Winner, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices
• Short-listed, Skipping Stones Book Award
• Winner, NSTA/CBC Best STEM Books for Students
• Winner, A Mighty Girl's Books of the Year
• Winner, Junior Library Guild Selection
• Winner, Kirkus Best Children's Books
• Winner, Eureka! Children’s Book Award
• Short-listed, Cybils

"[A] valuable addition to units on Indigenous individuals or women in STEM."—Booklist

"[S]potlights the story of an innovative Cherokee aerospace engineer, whose life sets an inspiring example for all children."—School Library Journal

"Through realistically cartooned digital illustrations and straightforward text, readers learn how Ross's experiences reflected these traits. Because she valued learning and had a passion for math, Ross was able to persevere."—The Horn Book Magazine

"A stellar addition to the genre that will launch careers and inspire for generations, it deserves space alongside stories of other world leaders and innovators."—starred, Kirkus Reviews