Review by New York Times Review
HALF A CENTURY later, the story of the first lunar landing still has the capacity to astound. These picture books, many with all-ages appeal, combine artful, accurate texts and wondrous images to introduce a new generation to the Apollo program - and some of the 410,000 people who made it possible. IN CHRIS GALL'S GO FOR THE MOON: A ROCKET, A BOY, AND THE FIRST MOON LANDING (Roaring Brook, 48 pp., $19.99; ages 5 to 10), it's 1969, and a young narrator acts as an earthbound crewmate, keeping pace with the Apollo 11 astronauts from his suburban backyard. Double-page spreads juxtapose the stages of the journey, from launch to triumphant splashdown, with inset images of a Tang-sipping kid in hornrims and sneakers, building and transporting his model rocket, testing out a cardboard lunar module and joyfully bounding through his own moon walk after watching Neil Armstrong's first steps on a fuzzy blackand-white television. Throughout, the boy uses soccer balls, string and other everyday objects to explain underlying concepts such as thrust and landing angles. Working in a crisply delineated digital style that gives shapes an almost 3-D quality, Gall balances densely explanatory pages with wide-angle scenes filled with tension and drama. Readers who want close-ups of fuel cells and docking components will find those specifics, while others can take in the miraculous big picture: the small silver capsules traveling through blackest-black space. Best of all, Gall's young narrator shows how leaps of imagination can transform the grandest milestones into the most personal experiences. IN ANTICIPATION OF this summer's anniversary, Brian Floca set out to update his extraordinary 2009 account of the first moon landing, which was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book that year, among other awards. He emerged from the project with a substantially expanded edition, which includes eight new pages of artwork and additional text. The newly revised moonshot: the FLIGHT OF APOLLO 11 (Richard Jackson/Atheneum, 56 pp., $19.99; ages 4 to 10) IS even more glorious than the original, and also more inclusive. Whereas the 2009 edition focused on the three astronauts, here there are more vignettes of the diverse men and women - white, black and brown - whose ingenuity and labor made the mission possible: the "thousands of people, / for millions of parts." New lines of text retain the grace and clarity of Floca's economical free verse while adding information, such as the tricky logistics of spacecraft rendezvous. And as before, Floca's artwork remains an extraordinary delight for a reader of any age. Like the astronauts' own photographs, his expansive, heart-stopping images convey the unfathomable beauty of both the bright, dusty moon and the blue jewel of Earth. SEVERAL NEW BOOKS focus on individuals rather than overviews of the big event. Suzanne Slade's a computer called Katherine: HOW KATHERINE JOHNSON HELPED PUT AMERICA ON THE MOON (Little, Brown, 40 pp., $18.99; ages 4 to 8) picks up the story of the "human computers," of "Hidden Figures" fame. Slade, a mechanical engineer who has worked on rockets for NASA and the Air Force, brings deep background knowledge to her biography of Johnson, an African-American math prodigy who overcame barriers of race and gender to become a profoundly influential member of the Apollo missions' team. Slade writes with appealing rhythm and repetition, and she folds in a clever game of false equations to emphasize moments of injustice: Limited beliefs about women's professional roles, for example, are "as wrong as 10 - 5 = 3." In her picture-book debut, the illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison mixes neatly composed, straightforward action with inventive, swirling images dramatizing Johnson's brilliant calculations. The story is followed by an informational spread that includes a rousing quote from Johnson: "Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing." The astronaut Alan Bean was the fourth person, and the first artist, to walk on the moon. Written with assistance from Bean, Dean Robbins's the astronaut who PAINTED THE MOON: THE TRUE STORY OF ALAN BEAN (Orchard/Scholastic, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8) intersperses action scenes from the Apollo 12 mission with moments from Bean's life, as he learns to combine his love of flight with his urgent wish to "paint what he saw." After returning to Earth, Bean is disappointed with photographs that fail to capture the moon's "barren beauty." So, with color and imagination, he paints "how stunning outer space looked through his eyes. How it made him feel." A final striking spread pairs reproductions of photographs taken by Apollo 12's astronauts and Bean's paintings of the same scenes. The astronauts are friendly, relatable characters in Sean Rubin's jewel-colored, crosshatched artwork, which smooths out narrative shifts with skillfully extended motifs, including aircraft that transform from model airplanes to Air Force fighters to the Apollo 12 rocket as the pages turn. And as in Bean's paintings, a brilliant palette animates the scenes of space with vibrant, palpable energy. More than an account of a singular figure, Robbins's notable biography is a beautiful reminder that science and art are a vital combination and, together, can create new understanding. OF COURSE, for some children, the details of the Apollo missions may seem as dull and unappealing as freeze-dried food. Young kids, especially preschoolers, may want to start with something more familiar - the moon itself. Susanna Leonard Hill's MOON'S FIRST FRIENDS: ONE GIANT LEAP FOR FRIENDSHIP (Sourcebooks, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 3 to 6) sparks lunar interest with an age-old approach: Put a face on it. Forget the Man in the Moon (or the rabbit). This cheerful title introduces a rosy-cheeked, eye-lashed "Queen of the Night Sky," lonely after 4.5 billion years of silvery bright solitude. Humans' experiments with early air flight get her hopes up, but alas; she remains alone, despite her efforts to attract attention, including a solar eclipse. Then, "one hot July day," visitors arrive. Elisa Paganelli's textured digital artwork extends the winsome story with a cozy version of space, a soothing, star-speckled blue rather than bottomless black, and watched over by the eager, anthropomorphized "queen," who cheers as the Eagle lands right between her eyes. The book's substantial back matter about the Apollo 11 mission seems aimed at older siblings, rather than the story's primary young audience. A more immediate connection might come from a QR code printed on the endpapers, which leads to NASA's sound file of Neil Armstrong's first words after his ever-astonishing "one small step." GILLIAN ENGBERG is a former editorial director of books for youth at Booklist.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 14, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
As the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission prepare for their history-making flight, a young boy stands at his window, staring out at the moon. In the morning, his family watches the news closely while he sets up the designs for his own rocket ship. From there, the rockets take over: double spreads and single pages zoom in, diagramming the five engines needed to get to the moon, or out, comparing the size to the Statue of Liberty. The boy narrates as the astronauts begin their famous journey, while small panels at the foreground document his own day: he pumps his model rocket full of air, uses a wagon as a launchpad, and packs Tang for the journey. The large trim size places the focus on the richly colored illustrations, which chart and diagram each phase of the journey and return. This will appeal, predominately, to the space and tech obsessed, but as the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing arrives, anyone looking to experience the excitement of that time will have an interest.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In the hours leading up to the Apollo 11 mission, a child imaginatively follows the astronauts' movements: "The astronauts are ready for the mission, and so am I." As the boy (dressed in a NASA shirt) is pictured pulling the small rocket he built in a red wagon, the Saturn V is transported to its launch pad. Gall provides technical details relating to the stages of the voyage, with cutaways offering a view into command and service modules; readers next see the events through the boy's eyes (he replicates the Eagle from cardboard). Finally, the family gathers around the television for the landing: "Everyone is so nervous that no one speaks." Gall uses approachable analogies to illuminate STEAM concepts, and an author's note recalls Gall's experience watching the moon landing as a child, further personalizing this edifying and heartfelt story. Ages 5-8. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2--5--As the Apollo 11 astronauts make their way to the moon, a young boy follows along with his own version of the mission activities at home. The unnamed, young narrator spends the majority of the book explaining concepts behind space travel such as thrust, telemetry, and orbit, and annotating the realistic illustrations and diagrams of the inner workings of the Saturn V rocket, service module Columbia, moon lander Eagle, and spacesuits. He also launches a water rocket (or air pressure rocket) with his younger brother, drinks Tang in his cardboard Columbia, lands a model moon lander by sliding it down a string, and jumps around his yard while practicing his "giant leaps." According to the author's note, this semi-autobiographical work is based on Gall's childhood fascination with the moon landing. His passion for the subject matter comes through in this detailed work. The imaginary celestial adventures of the narrator work as an effective mirror to the journey of the astronauts. As a resource for educators, its only downside is that no instructions are included for the plethora of tie-in activities. Back matter includes an author's note, fun facts, glossary, sources, and places to visit. VERDICT Recommended for science classes and school and public library collections.--Kacy Helwick, New Orleans Public Library
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In 1969, a young boy (who we later learn is the author) excitedly recounts each thrilling moment of the Apollo 11 mission. The main illustrations feature detailed schematics of the mission spacecraft, its astronauts, and their moon walk, while smaller insets show us the boy as he sends off his model rocket, plays in his capsule-themed tent, and watches the mission on television. Websites. Bib., ind. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Apollo 11 mission ignites a young boy's lifelong passion for rockets and astronomy.A stately Saturn V rocket stands ready, illuminated by beams of light against a night sky. Turn the page, and a stunning white moon with a hazy halo shares that night sky, the words "The moon is out tonight" superimposed invitingly on its surface. Next, a young white boy (assumed to be a young version of the author) stares at the moon through his open bedroom window, thinking, "I'm so excited that I can't sleep!" Effectively set up by these first images, the narrative proceeds to weave the three threadsthe rocket, the moon, and the boyinto a volume that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. The boy's first-person narrative and supporting illustrations are set within the larger moon-mission illustrations like family photographs. The science behind the Saturn V rocket is related simply, large-format illustrations emphasizing the grandeur of the Apollo endeavor. The moon itself, ever present and awaiting, gets short shrift once the astronauts set foot on the surface; they spend two and a half hours and off they go, blasting off and heading home. The final double-page spread is a stunning, vertiginous view of the boy's next generation of homemade rockets lifting off.A solid addition to the growing collection of fine volumes about Apollo 11. (author's note, fun facts, glossary, sources, places to visit) (Informational picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
