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Summary
Summary
Two artists at the height of their powers have created a beautiful book with an unforgettable message about the moon and an even more important message about the earth. A publishing event!"If you decide to go to the moon," writes Faith McNulty, "read this book first. It will tellyou how to get there and what to do after youland. The most important part tells you how to get home. Written in the second person, the text allows the reader to participate in every aspect of the journey, from packing ("don't forget your diary and plenty of food") to liftoff (at first you'll feel heavy; don't worry") to traveling thorugh space (where "the moon glows like a pearl in the black, black sky"). The reader lands at the Sea of Tranquility, the site of the first lunar landing
Author Notes
Steven Kellogg has illustrated more than a hundred books, including IS YOUR MAMA A LLAMA? and THE DAY JIMMY'S BOA ATE THE WASH. He has also retold and illustrated the adventures of tall-tale heroes such as Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, and Johnny Appleseed. He lives in Essex, New York.
Faith McNulty was born in New York City. She attended private schools, and left college after two years to work for The New York Daily News. Because she has a deep interest in animals and their behavior, she wrote about animals for The New Yorker for twenty years. Many of her experiences as an animal writer are the basis for her current writings for children. Faith also worked as a children's book reviewer for The New Yorker magazine from 1979 to 1991. Currently she lives at her farm in Rhode Island and writes children's books.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this impressive picture book, an aspiring astronaut imagines a trip to the moon from soup to nuts-and gains a bird's eye-perspective on why it's important to protect his planet. McNulty (The Elephant Who Couldn't Forget) adopts a playful tone as she takes the young hero through preparations, liftoff, a moonwalk and the return trip, mixing hard facts ("If you average 3,750 miles per hour, you will get there in two-and-a-half days) with poetic phrases ("the moon, the mysterious moon,/ glows like a pearl in the black, black sky"). The highlight occurs when the boy astronaut discovers the plaque and flag left by the men of Apollo 11 in 1969, linking him to a long legacy of courageous American space explorers. Kellogg's (Is Your Mama a Llama?) sweeping spreads of realistic space- and moonscapes strike just the right balance of beauty and eeriness; one of the most dramatic shows the hero as a tiny, doll-like figure standing at a point where the moon's silvery, barren landscape meets the pitch-black depths of the galaxy. As the returning astronaut contemplates the earth from the vantage point of space, the narrative turns a bit saccharine ("Air and water are Earth's special blessings./ .../ you promise you will always do your best/ to protect all life on our beautiful Earth"). Yet Kellogg's four-panel gatefold celebrating all the earth's inhabitants adds substance to McNulty's call to action, encompassing whales and penguins, as well as cavemen and contemporary children at a swimming hole against a backdrop of spires, domes and skyscrapers. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) ""If you decide to go to the moon..."" instructs the opening lines, ""read this book before you start."" While this may not yet be part of official NASA training, the second-person address takes readers from blastoff to touchdown and back again. McNulty's text is a lovely union of science and lyricism, evoking both the emotions and experiences of the solitary reader-astronaut and the hard facts of space: ""When you are thirsty, don't try to pour orange juice into a glass. With no gravity, it would fly into a million drops and become orange juice fog."" Kellogg's illustrations feature a cheery blond boy whose sturdy frame bobs optimistically through the journey. Where they shine brightest, however, is with the space- and moonscapes, the watercolors making the most of the stark grays and whites of space, a tiny rocket or the grand curve of the moon emphasizing the vastness and lifelessness of the universe beyond our atmosphere. Despite a sudden left-turn from science to a finger-wagging lesson at the end, as the text exhorts the returning reader-astronaut always to protect life on earth (this accompanied by a two-page gatefold celebrating the variety and richness of that life), this stands as an appropriately thrilling introduction to space travel for young readers. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. As in her earlier How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World0 (1979), illustrated by Marc Simont, McNulty offers another mock travel manual for children undertaking a spectacularly improbable journey. In a matter-of-fact, second-person voice, she describes trip preparations, what to expect en route and after disembarking (the tour includes a visit to Apollo 11's landing site), and the thrill of homecoming. The tousle-headed boy cast as readers' surrogate is a vintage Kellogg character, but the artist shows his more experimental side elsewhere with tie-dye-vibrant backdrops, boldly graphic compositional choices, and areas of thickly applied paint to re-create a craggy lunar surface. Whimsical details throughout, whether visual (a cameo by Kellogg and his dog Pinkerton) or textual (beverages in space must be in squeeze bags, lest one produce an "orange juice fog"), will sustain children's interest through meditative reflections on the moonscape's eerie poetry of "silence and stillness." A dramatic four-page foldout celebrating "Earth's special blessings," air and water, marks a safe landing as well as a return to Kellogg's bread-and-butter style--a riotous watercolor panorama teeming with people, animals, and green, growing things. The concluding environmental message should have been left implicit, but the single preachy note won't dampen readers' enthusiasm for the preceding journey. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2005 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-In this lavish picture book, readers accompany a boy on a fascinating excursion to the moon. The lyrical text provides tips on what to pack and describes the distance to be covered. After blastoff, facts about space travel are mingled with descriptions of what the journey might be like: the loneliness, the lack of gravity, and how you might pass the time. After landing, the text warns: "Your first step will be difficult. You will rise in the air and leap forward like a kangaroo, but once you learn how, walking will be fun." It also suggests that the moon's lack of sound and color may make it seem like a dream. After viewing the flag left behind by astronauts, it's time to depart. As Earth looms closer, a four-page foldout in a glorious burst of color marks our planet's contrast to the moon's black-and-white shades. These pages depict a variety of wonders: all sorts of animals and landscapes as well as people from different historical periods and locales. The narrative notes, "Air and water are Earth's special blessings. We must guard them well." The final pages show the boy returning home. 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!-DeAnn Tabuchi, San Anselmo Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
