The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA’s Deaf Bioastronauts by Kerry O’Malley Cerra. Illustrated by Kristina Gehrmann
Summary: Take a look inside one part of the journey to the moon, and meet the Gallaudet Eleven: the brave volunteers who helped make it possible. These hidden figures played an important role in NASA’s research, and it was their shared disability that made them so vital to the plan: their vestibular systems, a part of the inner ear, did not work, meaning they did not get motion sick. The Gallaudet Eleven were the perfect volunteers for NASA’s spinning, whirling tests to learn the effects of space travel on the human body.

In this groundbreaking nonfiction picture book, Deaf author Kerry O’Malley Cerra and Deaf illustrator Kristina Gehrmann bring forth the long-overlooked story of eleven Deaf men who participated in NASA experiments for ten years to help researchers understand motion sickness. The text lays out the hows and whys in an engaging and child-friendly way, incorporating quotes from the bioastronauts themselves and leaning into the humor. Gehrmann’s illustrations capture the joy and humor as well; one memorable spread shows the Deaf bioastronauts, chosen because of their inability to feel motion sickness, gleefully playing cards while the researchers on their ship loll in bed, too sick to work during a churning storm. It’s a readaloud perfect for the classroom, with lots of extension possibilities in the backmatter, including an author’s note, more facts, and a timeline of the Space Race. The book is also an ideal springboard for discussion about who gets to participate in scientific study. Quite simply an essential nonfiction picture book.

THE GALLAUDET ELEVEN is out now.

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