Rocket to the Moon!: Big Ideas That Changed the World #1 - Hardcover

Brown, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419734040 ISBN 13: 9781419734045

Publisher: Abrams Fanfare, 2019

Synopsis

Award-winning author/illustrator Don Brown explores the history of rocket building in this installment of the Big Ideas That Changed the World graphic novel series.
 
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong said those iconic words when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. But it wasn’t just one man who got us to the moon—there was a whole team of people, plus centuries of discoveries and technologies that came before that made it possible.
 
From ancient Chinese rockets to the first steps on the moon, Rocket to the Moon! Reveals which “bombs bursting in air” inspired the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” why the Russians wanted to launch a dog into Earth’s atmosphere, and how exactly astronauts are able to go to the bathroom while in a rocket far off in space!
 
Big Ideas That Changed the World is a graphic novel series that celebrates the hard-won succession of ideas that ultimately changed the world. Humor, drama, and art unite to tell the story of events, discoveries, and ingenuity over time that led humans to come up with a big idea and then make it come true.
 
Big Ideas That Changed the World series:
Rocket to the Moon! (#1)
Machines That Think! (#2)
A Shot in the Arm! (#3)
We the People! (#4)
All Charged Up! (#5)
 

About this title

About the Author

Don Brown is the award-winning author and illustrator of many picture-book biographies. His books have been given a Robert F. Sibert Medal and an Orbis Pictus Award, among other awards and notice. He lives in Merrick, New York.
 

Reviews

Gr 3–7—Brown's new graphic nonfiction series follows a "big idea" from conception to fruition. This first installment starts with early rocket science, details the Apollo 11 mission, and ends with Gene Cernan, the 12th and last (so far) Earthling to walk on the moon. Early 20th-century daredevil Rod Lawman narrates, providing commentary and keeping the tone light, like Nathan Hale in the "Hazardous Tale" series. Much of the dialogue is direct quotations, cited in the endnotes. Brown addresses information that's sometimes omitted from children's texts: only men were considered for the early astronaut programs, people and animals died in rocket tests and space flights, and Wernher von Braun forced concentration camp prisoners to build rockets for the Nazis before he surrendered to the Americans. Explosions feature in many of the dynamic illustrations, as rockets were just as likely to blow up as they were to take off, and readers will be amused by frank descriptions about dealing with bodily functions on early space missions. Back matter includes a time line of spaceflight and rockets and information on Rodman Law. VERDICT A must for youth graphic collections.—Kacy Helwick, New Orleans Public Library

Edition details

• Publisher: Abrams Fanfare
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419734040
• ISBN 13: 9781419734045
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 136