Customer Reviews

One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don Brown's book "One Giant Step: the Story of Neil Armstrong" is great. It approaches the story of America's most famous astronaut from a truly unique perspective. Even as an adult I found it compelling.The illustrations are colorful, lively watercolors with distinctive style and charm. Few have mastered the art writing children's books. Fewer have mastered the art of illustrating them. Don Brown has done both.

This biography is without a doubt Brown's best picturebook biography to date. He really has written an engaging biography of Armstrong. My second graders went back to this book time and again after I read it aloud! One of my students () used it as a primary source for her biography on Neil Armstrong...and she wrote a great bio too! A great addition to a classroom library or school library biography section!

No one is telling history to young children quite the way that Don Brown is -- clearly, factually, and without the unnecessary treacle and syrup. History is beguiling enough as it is. Brown's admiration for his subject comes through in his direct and Hemingway-esque style. Armstrong was a hero who started as a boy with a dream, literally. My children were smitten, as was I. THIS BOOK IS A NO-FAIL GIFT for boys and girls. We hope to hear, and see, more from this fantastic author-illustrator. He deserves more recognition, and I am sure that will come soon.

Unlike Mr. Brown's beautiful children's books about Ruth Law, Mary Kingsley and Alice Ramsey, everybody knows who Neil Armstrong was. To be sure the three women I just mentioned did amazing things for their time. But Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. This book shows us Neil as a child. We see how at six he loved airplanes, how he made airplane models, how he took an airplane ride in a plane with only twelve wicker seats. We see him watch planes at the airport, really get the feel of this boy's love of flying machines. In fact Neil got his pilot's license before he was licensed to drive. This is truly a hero's story and one my gal Sara and I share with our son a lot. As with Mr. Brown's other books, young Devon is growing up with this one. Books, like Trix, are for kids. The more you surround one with, the better off he will be later in life. We truly believe this, Sara and I. Yeah, books are good for kids and this is really one of the better ones.

My kids crave far more information than this book provided. They would have like more photographs of this famous man, not cartoonish, childish illustrations.