Black Hole Chasers: The Amazing True Story of an Astronomical Breakthrough by Anna Crowley Redding really took me by surprise. When I was asked to read this one for work, I was dreading it. This is not my topic of interest at all! But this middle grade nonfiction book was so engaging and easy to understand. I loved it.

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The summary, from Amazon:

In Black Hole Chasers, award-winning investigative journalist Anna Crowley Redding presents the riveting true story of one of the most inspiring scientific breakthroughs of our lifetime—the Event Horizon Telescope team’s reveal of the first image of a super massive black hole.

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope Team unveiled the first ever image of a super massive black hole.

This inspiring scientific breakthrough took years of hard work, innovative thinking, and a level of global cooperation never seen before. The challenge was immense. The goal was impossible. They would need a telescope as big as the earth itself. The technology simply didn’t exist. And yet, a multi-national team of scientists was able to show the world an image of something previously unseeable.

Based off extensive research and hours interviews with many of the team’s ground-breaking scientist, physicists, and mathematicians, Black Hole Chasers is a story of unique technological innovation and scientific breakthroughs, but more importantly, it’s a story of human curiosity and triumph.

Buy Black Hole Chasers here.

Right from the introduction, Black Hole Chasers grabbed my attention. I loved the inclusion of photographs, mini-biographies, and pop culture references sprinkled throughout this one. The chapters are brief, so this very dense topic felt more approachable. I especially loved the chapter on how information was shared between scientists in a culturally sensitive way, and how the photograph was shared at the same time all across the world. This book was a surprising 5 star read for me.