Floating Home - Hardcover

Getz, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805044973 ISBN 13: 9780805044973

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1997

Synopsis

When eight-year-old Maxine becomes the world's youngest astronaut, she has no idea how much preparation it will take. For an astronaut, even getting dressed is no simple task. There's thermal underwear to keep her body warm and a cooling suit in case she gets too hot. On top of that, there's a big orange pressure suit-- and underneath it all, a diaper!

But when countdown is over and the shuttle lifts off, Maxine thinks she's the luckiest person in that place she sees from space, that planet we call Earth, that whole wide, round world, our floating home.

About this title

About the Author

David Getz is a science staff developer in the New York City public schools. He wrote this book after interviewing many astronauts and NASA officials. He is also the author of Frozen Man, Life on Mars, and two novels, Thin Air and Almost Famous. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, his daughter, and her imaginary friends.

Michael Rex says that "being an astronaut is the only profession I'd give up drawing for." Mr. Rex lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Grade 1-4. Maxine, eight, goes the extra mile(s) for a school assignment: to look at her home in a different way and to draw what she sees. Taking the broad view of the task, she somehow "walks" to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral and manages to get herself on a space-shuttle mission. Despite this awkward transition from Maxine's walk through her familiar neighborhood to her eventual ride into outer space, this book provides details about the suiting-up process and other pre-flight routines that will interest children. The launch is explained in age-appropriate language: "The main engines started. Everything began to tremble. It was...like being in a subway train." The cartoons, rendered on cel vinyl in acrylics, are clear, detailed, and colorful. They carry the book's beginning where clarity in the text is poor, then support the story as Maxine becomes a space artist and draws her home as the Earth appears through the shuttle's window. Although this story lacks logic, the careful details about space travel will interest young readers.?Susan Garland, Maynard Public Library, MA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a unique slant on a typical homework assignment, Getz (Frozen Man, 1994, etc.) and newcomer Rex send a girl to incredible heights for her art project--outer space. When Maxine is instructed to look at her home in a new way, she leaves school and keeps on walking. Inside the Kennedy Space Center, she suits up; her outfit includes a diaper, two kinds of underwear (one to keep her warm, the other to cool her down), and a large orange pressure suit, all of which are wittily captured in Rex's acrylic illustrations. Feeling like a 100-pound duck in a diaper, Maxine takes a fantastic journey into space, where fun facts about weightlessness and rockets are interwoven into her personal account of take-off (the noise is like ``a thousand thousand lions roaring! Like the heart of an immense raging fire. Roar!''), flying upside down at dizzying speeds, witnessing hurricanes, shooting stars, and the earth from space, where ``somebody had forgotten to draw the lines.'' What begins as a contrivance catapults readers into an animated, aeronautical adventure and an entertaining look at the science of space travel; it ends as a visionary paradigm for a peaceful planet. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 6^-8. When asked by her teacher to look at her home in a new way and draw what she sees, Maxine takes her drawing paper and colored pencils into space and becomes the world's youngest astronaut. Colorful cartoon illustrations enhance the humorous aspects of the story as, through the eyes of this adventurous eight-year-old, the fun and excitement of the space journey unfold. Readers learn a lot in the process, but every scene has something more than information to offer. The scene in which Maxine is dressing, for example, is marked by humor and clever dialogue as she discovers she must wear a diaper under all the high-tech space gear. The launch scene is high drama, and when Maxine finally does see Earth, "a royal-blue gem on black velvet," it is a magical moment that is sure to spark interest and enthusiasm for the subject. A creative and highly entertaining adventure. Lauren Peterson

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805044973
• ISBN 13: 9780805044973
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Rex Michael
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 34