This book, like another “biography” I read, [b:Mae Among the Stars|34907235|Mae Among the Stars|Roda Ahmed|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1502099852l/34907235._SX50_.jpg|56166869], is almost completely fictionalized—but this book makes the smart decisions (a) to be transparent from the start about the fictionalization and (b) not to try and fictionalize Ellen Harding Baker’s whole life, but to instead show us what it might have been like to be her children, learning from and being inspired by an immensely smart woman in a time when women were not expected to be intelligent or interested in the sciences.

I love how this story does not pit intellectual life against home life—for the girls in this story, learning is a way of bonding and becoming a family, whether through reading together, watching the stars, talking to Mama in the garden, or watching her immortalize the fabric of the universe in the fabric of a quilt. The writing is gorgeous, and the illustrations are bright and joyful.

I will say, I don’t love this book’s portrayals of math as something utterly disconnected from the real world and therefore irritating, in contrast to science. I can’t lie, I mostly felt the same way about math in my own schooling, but I think that’s more of an issue with how math is taught (I did not feel that way when I took statistics courses in college), and I wish this book didn’t perpetuate it. But it’s a small issue in an otherwise wonderful story that is worth reading.

Click here to see the full review on my blog!