Kalpana Chawla

Written by Aparna Rajesh R
Illustrated by Atlas Of Greats

Discover the true story of Kalpana Chawla, the girl from a small Indian town who counted the stars and grew up to fly among them.

Little Kalpana grew up in Karnal, drawing aeroplanes in her schoolbooks and watching little planes at the flying club near her home. She studied how aeroplanes are built at a time when few girls did, then flew across the world to America to learn more, and became a pilot and a scientist at NASA.

In 1997 she flew on the space shuttle Columbia and became the first woman born in India to go to space. She told children everywhere to follow their dreams and work hard to reach them. The book tells the end of her life gently, and celebrates how her dream lives on.

The book ends with "What Kalpana taught us": six lessons from her life, each beside the moment it comes from, for grown-ups and children to talk about together.

Atlas Of Greats is a series of true picture-book biographies of great Indians for ages 3 to 7. Each book follows one person from childhood, in short pages made for reading aloud.