*Note: No, you are not seeing double! This post was intended to be a page under my newest heading, 5 Star Picture Books. Because I had trouble converting it to a page, I have rewritten it. It is now entitled 50 Years Later. you can find it under 5 Star Picture Books. And now there are two! (And, PS thanks for reading my posts!)
July 20, 2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the First Moon Walk. Learn more and see actual footage of the first steps and raising of the flag on the NASA site. Let’s celebrate this historic event with a pair of picture books published this year.
written by Dean Robbins
illustrated by Sean Rubin
Orchard Books, May 2019
First let’s look at a traditional non-fiction book. This is the story of a NASA astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon. Alan was so inspired by this event that he wanted to paint his impressions of the moon so that others could feel the magnitude of his feelings rather than the just the gray rock and dust associated with the moon. His paintings are bright, bold, and breathtaking. He experimented with them, creating even more authenticity. He sprinkled them with moon dust, scratched them with tools he’d used on the moon, and stamped them with astronaut boots. Below is a copy of his painting The Spirit of Apollo.
“It is my dream that on the wings of my paintbrush many people will see what I say and feel what I felt, walking on another world some 240,000 miles from my studio here on planet Earth.” -Alan Bean
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written by Susanna Leonard Hill
illustrated by Elisa Paganelli
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, May 2019
Our second book is a non-traditional non-fiction. This is the story of an anthropomorphic moon who talks to the reader about being lonely and wishing for a friend to visit her. Although she is the queen of the night sky, no one came to see her. She first asks the dinosaurs to visit but they stayed on earth. Then she asks other animals and then humans. Finally, she sees people making attempts to visit her. She is excited at the prospect but still has to wait for many years until man is able to send a rocket ship into space and land on her surface. She shares in the men’s wonder giving them rocks and dust to take home and they leave her a plaque, a flag, and many many footprints to remember them by.
Although this story is told by the moon it includes historic and scientific information. There is also back matter giving factual details about the first moon landing, the phases of the moon, facts about the moon, photos of the first astronauts, and a timeline beginning 4.6 billion years ago with the Hadean Era to the present Cenozoic Era, and detailed information about each stage of rocket ship which took the first men to the moon. And, if that wasn’t enough… you can download a scanner reader to your phone and listen to the Apollo 11 liftoff and the first words spoken on the moon!
Apollo 11 Plaque Left on the Moon
Closeup view of the plaque which the Apollo 11 astronauts left behind on the moon. The plaque is made of stainless steel measuring nine by seven and five-eighths inches, and one-sixteenth inch thick. The plaque was attached to the ladder on the landing gear strut on the descent stage of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. During flight , the plaque was covered with a thin sheet of stainless steel that was removed on the lunar surface. -NASA
“HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969, A. D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND”
Juliana Lee 