Who Was Sally Ride?

Terrific book. My 10 and 8 year olds both read it, and thought it was very interesting. I'm not sure what all the negative hubbub is about! Yes, the book does mention that Sally was gay, and that Sally divorced her husband and lived with her partner Tam. For children whose parents are going through a divorce, this could be a sensitive topic. But from a humanistic standpoint, the description of her as being married, divorced, falling in love with and living with her lifelong friend, was tastefully done. For those who are *worried* about the sexual orientation from an appropriateness aspect, here are the sentences: "Sally had known Tam since their early days of playing tennis together. Sally and Tam were in love with each other. Sally and Steve Hawley got divorced in 1987. Sally was with Tam for the rest of her life." "The world was also surprised to learn that Sally was gay. Always very private, Sally had told only her close family and friends about her illness, and about her relationship with Tam. She did not want the public to know about that part of her life until after she died. Some wishes Sally had been more open about being gay. But that wasn't Sally's way. She never liked labels." People live complicated lives. People get married, divorced, fall in love. This book treats her relationships respectfully and as part of who she was as a whole, complex person - as we all are. In a responsibly written biography, you can't leave out facts simply because they might spark a challenging conversation. Why not use it as a teaching moment? Talking to kids is often much easier than worried parents make it out to be. You can say simply, "People love each other." End of story.

My daughter had to do a "living Museum" project in her class. She had to dress up as Sally ride and tell people that came by all about who she was, what she did, all about her life. This book really helped with all of them and highlighted the main events in her life. Between this and a video on Youtube all about Sally Ride, she was set and did great! A+ on it!

My daughter had a school project where she researched a historical figure of her choice. She picked Sally Ride and this book contained a lot of information for her project!!! It was also a very interesting read, my daughter loves this series of books. Highly recommend!!

I loved this book, as well as all the other books in this series. As a middle school teacher of 25 years, I collected all of the biographies as they came out, regardless of the age the book was intended for reading. At the end of the year after state testing, I would assign a biography report using these books. The students really got into this assignment and actually enjoyed doing the research! I highly recommend this, and all other biographies in The Who is/ Who was series! I am now collecting the “Inspiring Women” series of Barbies for my granddaughter who is only 3, but I am keeping them hidden until she is older. I am buying a biography to go with each of the dolls in the series, and I always buy the Who is/Who was book if it is available for the person.

The pictures inside are not in color. It was a good book for my 2nd grader, with lots of useful info for his Women's History project. Just a heads up: the last chapter mentions a bit about some people wishing Sally were more open about being gay, which confused my 8 year old at the end of the book, so if you're conscientious about shielding little ones from LGBT content, be aware. For me, I thought it could have been mentioned in an appendix of the book or a table of facts after the actual story, rather than in the bio/narrative section, since the target audience is so young. And especially since Sally Ride herself was very private about being gay and didn't particularly want to be known for that. Otherwise, it was a good factual book about our first female in space.

I bought this book for my daughter for her book project. She really like the book and it was full of great information. Definitely will be buying more of these books for her!

They learned a lot !!

My son loves these books. The information is written at the level he needs to be engaged and to learn. Sally Ride is a wonderful inspiration and these books give you the opportunity to get to know the person beyond what they’re famous for - this set gives you a feeling for what the person’s whole life was like.

Great product - good service