Wow! Math, Space and Black History in a lovely Children’s Book – Erma Does the Math by Ann Strawn

When Tameka visits her elderly aunt, birthday gift in hand, quirky Aunt Erma puts her to work. As she hangs an old photo Tameka discovers that the women in the picture are 1940’s-era human computers at Langley Jet Propulsion Lab and that her auntie was one of them! She has lots of questions, but Aunt Erma’s price for answers is one math problem each. Tameka keeps up, but the problems get more complex with each question. Remembering the gift, Tameka convinces her auntie to open it. The contents make them both laugh and realize that they’ve learned something about each other.

My Review:

With a great mix of maths fun and history, too
This is a great book for children dear to you.
A lovely children's book at which it is well worth taking a look
It tells of Tameka's visit to her Aunt Erma where she took
A birthday present for her but before she'd open it
Aunt had a photo for Tameka to fit.
The photo has three ladies who
Worked together with a special job to do
They were human computers who were great at math
And helped keep astronauts on a safe path.
The story has beautiful illustrations by Anisha, too,
Helping bring this story to life for me and you.
What an incredible lady Erma Tynes Walker really proved to be
Read the book for yourself and I'm sure you'll agree!
For my complementary copy of this book, I say thank you,
I throughly enjoyed reading it and this is my honest review.

Purchase Links:

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Erma-Does-Math-Ann-Strawn/dp/0578742691

US – https://www.amazon.com/Erma-Does-Math-Ann-Strawn/dp/0578742691

Author Bio –

Ann Strawn lives in Renton Washington with her husband of 34 years, daughter and family dog. She makes her living as a middle school science teacher and truly enjoys the company of kids and teens. She considers her job total immersion training for writing her middle grade novels, THE DOWNLOAD and THE UPDATE.

Ann’s most current project is a picture book about her great aunt Erma Tynes Walker who was a human computer at Langley Airforce Base. Besides writing Ann also enjoys crochet and just hanging out with her family.