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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.

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.