Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark

Name: Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark
Brand: Macmillan Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Allen R. Wells
ISBN: 9781250386748

Author: Allen R. Wells

Narrator: Melinda Sewak

Unabridged: 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Macmillan Young Listeners

Published: 01/07/2025

Categories: Children's Nonfiction, Biographical, African American & Black Nonfiction

Synopsis

Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark features music and special effects. Listen along and enjoy the fun!

Based on a true story, this inspiring audiobook is about a curious, tinkering girl who grew up to become one of the first Black female engineers for NASA; for fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Counting on Katherine.

Yvonne Clark had an engineering spark—an instinct for figuring out how things worked.

Broken lamp? She screwed, rewired, and wrenched until…light!
Wrecked radio? She twisted, snipped, and hammered until…music!
Clogged furnace? She picked, plucked, and cleared until…heat!

When she grew up, Yvonne’s problem-solving power took her to NASA, where fellow engineers had a serious problem with the Saturn V rocket’s F-1 engine: It had hot spots—high temperatures in the engine.

Can Yvonne Clark and her engineering spark solve the problem?

In an electric tribute, Allen R. Wells artfully tells the life story of his favorite engineering professor who also happened to be one of our nation’s most influential African American engineers.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

About Allen R. Wells

Allen R. Wells is an author and engineer. He was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He studied Architectural Engineering at Tennessee State University in Nashville. He is the author of It's Pride, Baby! and Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark. He currently lives in Virginia.

About DeAndra Hodge

DeAndra Hodge is an illustrator and character designer based in Washington D.C. She graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Art from the University of Montevallo. She is the illustrator of Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark by Allen R. Wells. DeAndra grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, a.k.a “Rocket City” where Yvonne Clark spent a summer working on the Saturn V booster engine.

About Melinda Sewak

Melinda Sewak (she/her/hers) is an Emmy-nominated story chaser, whose rich, lyrical, and welcoming voice brings life to an ever-growing cast of characters. Her facility with language is deeply immersive and has added dimension to 25+ audiobooks, ranging from children’s fiction to YA to romantic comedy to fantasy. Melinda has been fine-tuning her ability to convey the truth and the comedy in every story by drawing on her own diverse life experiences as a Black, queer creator – having grown up as a first-generation Haitian-American, graduated with a BA in Theater Studies from Yale University, toured as a jazz a cappella singer, worked as a firefighter and rescuer, conducted and published critical care and emergency medicine research, attended medical school, coached as a certified personal trainer, served as a Shakespeare teaching artist, worked in IT as a data and business analyst – and professionally acting on stage and screen. While varied, the through-line has always been a love for people and storytelling – and an always-present desire, evident in the rhythm and curiosity that exude from her voice, to discover, to share, and to connect with story and listener alike.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bookishrealm on March 12, 2025

I love picture book biographies and the way they can provide information about individuals we don’t get the opportunity to learn about in school. This was fascinating!......more

Goodreads review by Lois on December 04, 2024

This is a high-quality audiobook production with a musical soundtrack and narrated by Melinda Sewak. I love the soft ragtime/jazz feel of the soundtrack. It's fun and I think helps to get kids excited about the story. This is primarily a biography of engineer Yvonne Clark. Yvonne is compared to a sup......more

Goodreads review by Zelos on October 24, 2024

Cute, engaging and fun. I absolutely adored this audiobook and I know that kids will enjoy it too, from the friendly narrator to the fun sound effects everything about this book will draw in the attention of little ones. On top of all the fun this book goes along Yvonne Clark’s life and her interest i......more

Goodreads review by Jessie on March 16, 2025

Very strong implications of natural engineering ability here, though maybe what was intended was more of an inclination toward tinkering--we do see persistence and things taking several tries. On the adulthood side, I appreciate that the rocket story is told as one of looking carefully at details an......more

Goodreads review by Danielle on October 31, 2024

I received a copy of this audiobook frm netGalley for a honest review. What a great story told with such fun! I enjoyed this audiobook about Yvonne Clark and her inspritional story. I also enjoyed the authors note to learn that they were taught by Yvonne made this book even better.......more

Quotes

"A buoyant profile of Yvonne Clark (1929-2019), a lifelong tinkerer with a knack for making everything work better, from the family toaster to giant rockets... Inspirational fare for aspiring engineers and scientists." —Kirkus