Book Review: All About the Moon Landing (OT)

All About the Moon Landing by Chris Edwards (Blue River Press, 2023, $7.99PB, 128pp, ages 9-12, grades preschool to grade 3) Review by Skye Anderson. 

One in a series of unrelated books about history, All About the Moon Landing is recent history (if there is such a thing). The young readers' grandparents will remember some of these space flights beginning in the 60s.

Ask Grandpa! (Or Grandma)

President Kennedy promised to send us to the moon in 1960 - it was a race between us and the Soviet Union, now Russia, and they seemed to be winning. But before the young reader gets into all that, he must first understand the history behind the history and that appears in chapter 1 and World War II. Of course, grandpa and grandma are also good people to ask about events since they lived through them.

About the Book Itself

We love the table of contents (ToC) and the drawings and maps. Also included is a timeline starting in 1939 and a very helpful list of acronyms and glossary. This, however, is a book that must be read in order, chapter by chapter: you really can't just open it anywhere to start or pick an interesting chapter from the ToC unless the reader has a specific person or year or flight to find out about. Then, the index comes in handy.

If the reader gets bogged down in chapter one, just skip it and come back to it later for the background. 

It's a handy little book, chock full of information, including illustrations (their captions can be hard to read, however since the font is cursive and small).

What's It All About?

You will learn about the first seven US astronauts and the Soviet ones, as well, including the dogs who went into space and, of course, Sputnik. You will learn about the accidents and the near-accidents. And you will be able to place these events in relation to world events happening at the time.

All in all, a good reference book for the interested student.