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.