Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? by Tanya Lee Stone

The first was related to the fact that my initial drafts were in picture book form, which I then blew out and expanded into long-form nonfiction. In terms of finding the voice, that evolved from two major pathways of the work I was doing. I also needed to be sure I set it in enough historical context to make sense to people who were not yet born in the ''50s and ''60s so they could truly understand the significance of the story. The process called for a more journalistic approach than I had ever reached for in the past because it was a little-known story and there were scattered pieces of it to be found and put together. My research spanned more than six years, off and on, for this book. The Horn Book described Almost Astronauts as “meticulously researched and thrillingly told.” What was your research process like, and how did you develop the voice of this book? The Mercury 13 didn''t get their chance to take that small step, but their journey translated into a giant leap for womankind.

It''s the story of the Mercury 13-highly trained female pilots who fought to be accepted into the NASA astronaut training program when it was still considered a man''s world. In honor of the upcoming July 20th anniversary of the first moon landing, we thought we''d talk to Tanya about her book Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream. She has garnered starred reviews and other accolades for books such as Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald and the highly popular Amelia Earhart. Tanya Lee Stone is a former editor and award-winning author who often writes about strong women.

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? by Tanya Lee Stone