Review by Booklist Review
Exploration is all about teams and machines, says astronaut Williams, introducing this discussion of the technological marvels that carry travelers into space, keep them healthy, help them explore, and bring them home again. Like To Burp or Not to Burp: A Guide to Your Body in Space (2016) and Go for Lift Off! How to Train like an Astronaut (2017), the latest large-format book in the Dr. Dave Astronaut series offers an insider's view of the space program. The colorful pages offer many photos and cartoonlike drawings as well as short presentations and memorable factoids, such as the price tag for the International Space Station: at $150 billion, it's the most expensive object ever built. A typical double-page spread might include several illustrations, a couple of text boxes with informative, paragraph-long discussions of individual topics, and a brief comment or fun fact from Dr. Williams. Covering machines from rockets and rovers to robots, gadgets, and spacesuits, the discussion touches on many varied aspects of the space program. Just right for space-minded browsers.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-What machines and equipment make space travel possible and allow people to travel to outer space and live, work, and explore there and then return home? This book answers this intriguing question, using frequent quotes from Williams, a Canadian physician and astronaut who sailed aboard the NASA space shuttles Columbia and Endeavor. The book is divided into six sections, moving readers from takeoff; to living, working, and moving in space; to heading home. Readers learn about machines and equipment such as the spacecraft, orbital module, service module, engine, fuel tank, International Space Station, robotic explorers, robotic arms, space rovers, space suits, and orbiting telescopes. The information is presented in spreads, each of which contains a brief introductory paragraph, color photographs with captions, and many informative sidebars. The text is brief and easy to understand, and the photos are fascinating and invite a close look. This book is part of a series which includes To Burp or Not to Burp: A Guide to Your Body in Space and Go for Lift Off!: How to Train Like an Astronaut. VERDICT Readers who enjoy learning about space exploration should enjoy this informative book.-Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A basic look at rockets and the types of payloads they carry as they explore space and our solar system.The single-topic spreads open with a description of Earth's atmosphere, including where space (officially) begins, and end with under-development projects such as NASA's Space Launch System, drones to explore the moon, and the James Webb Space telescope"launched in 2018" reads the narrative with unjustified optimism (it's currently scheduled to go up in early 2019). In between, the authors sweep through the history of humans and robots in space from Sputnik I and Yuri Gagarin to now-routine shuttle missions and EVAs. Krynauw adds cartoon spot art featuring a multicultural cast of children (one bearing a bindi but others with exaggeratedly angled eyes) in space gear to the many small color photos of space probes, rockets, rover vehicles, astronauts in and out of space suits, and close-up details of the International Space Station. The accompanying commentary mixes facts and explanations in easily digestible bits, with side observations from ex-astronaut Williams: "Most astronauts think up' is always above their head, and some snore in space!"Too broad to be more than a quick skim, but apt fodder for eager young prospective space travelers. (Nonfiction. 8-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
