HIDDEN FIGURES The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

Octavia Spencer's soft narration evokes the lives four brilliant African-American females--Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. All were "good at math. Really good." This refrain repeats, with Spencer accenting these words to make clear the women's connection to each other and the gifts of each. She also stresses rhythms to highlight inequality. At one point, there's a long list of "they could nots" as in "They could not eat in the same restaurants. They could not drink from the same water fountains . . ." Similarly, she points to the irony of Mary Jackson's taking high-level math classes but not being "allowed to go inside the white schools where classes were taught." Author Margot Shetterly's passion for her subject shines in her lively reading of the additional information at the end of the audiobook. S.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2020]