If You Decide To Go To The Moon
"If you decide to go to the moon in your own rocket ship, read this book before you start." So begins a resplendent you-are-there nonfiction picture book, narrated in second person, with sensational full-page paintings. We follow an eager blonde-haired boy as he blasts off in a rocket ship and heads for the moon. Weightless, he swims about the cabin, sleeps tied down, and watches the sparkling stars in every direction. After two and a half days, he lands, takes a moonwalk in his spacesuit, and looks out over the lifeless gray sand and stone into the blackness of space. On his way back to Earth, the clouds and continents and seas appear, a swirling ball of color in the black void. A four page Technicolor foldout displays a majestic sweep of biomes; animals of land, sea, and air; people and buildings through history; and a multicultural mix of children leaping into a lake.
Themes : ASTRONAUTS. MOON. SPACE. IMAGINATION.
CRITICS HAVE SAID
- Rich artwork complements the strong text. Kellogg’s generous splashes of bright hues in the Earth and shipboard scenes juxtaposed with the somber moonscapes set the appropriate moods. Houston, we have a winner!
School Library Journal
IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:
Aldrin, Buzz. Reaching for the Moon. HarperCollins, 2005.
Brown, Don. One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong. Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Burleigh, Robert. Earth from Above for Young Readers. Abrams, 2002.
Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System. Scholastic, 1990.
Crews, Nina. I’ll Catch the Moon. Greenwillow, 1996.]
Gaffney, Timothy R. Grandpa Takes Me to the Moon. Tambourine, 1996.
Haddon, Mark. The Sea of Tranquility. Harcourt, 1996.
Krupp, E. C. The Moon and You. Macmillan, 1993.
Leedy, Loreen. Postcards from Pluto: A Tour of the Solar System. Holiday House, 1993.
McNulty, Faith. How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World. HarperCollins, 1979.
Simon, Seymour. The Moon. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Suen, Anastasia. Man on the Moon. Viking, 1997.
Wethered, Peggy, and Ken Edgett. Touchdown Mars!: An ABC Adventure. Putnam, 2000.
Yaccarino, Dan. Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I’m Off to the Moon! Scholastic, 1997.