He borrowed library books and read about astronauts walking in space, orbiting the earth, and flying around the moon. Every night the little boy hoped and hoped that one day astronauts would land on the moon. And then, one cloudless night, they did. . . . “Haddon captures the profound thrill of being witness to the moon landing better than any other picture book.”--School Library Journal
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A British author recounts his boyhood fascination with the moon and with the rocketships and missions that preceded the first lunar landing. Haddon's text lyrically transports readers to that dramatic moment in 1969 when, in living rooms around the world, people saw men roving the moon's landscape. From the boy's dream of "rocketing across the cold, black miles and landing on crumbly rock" to the actual event of the two American astronauts "bouncing through the dust in the Sea of Tranquillity," the author's measured tone weaves the aspirations of the heart with history. Full-bleed illustrations, softly textured as if seen through the scrim of time, interpret the text with judicious sentiment. For example, a pretend flag?the boy's blue-striped shirt with a red pocket?sounds a childlike echo when it appears in the boy's dream, planted on the moon beside the Stars and Stripes. Nostalgia, sweet and convincing, shines through the restraint of both text and illustrations. Ages 4-12.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3?A man looks back to his childhood, when he spent hours creating space scrapbooks and gazing at the moon through his father's binoculars, hoping that one day people would land there. He remembers staying up til 3 a.m. the glorious night they did, to watch on TV as Armstrong and Aldrin walked in the Sea of Tranquility's dust. Like Peter Catalanotto, Birmingham paints in a realistic style and often from an intimately close point of view, softening edges and giving the light a bluish cast that mutes the colors appealingly; scenes of a fresh-faced lad in a red-striped shirt alternate with wordless full-spread views of the two spacesuited astronauts in a wide gray landscape?joined (as the child drops off to sleep) by a smaller figure. Though Mary Ann Fraser builds a sturdier foundation of facts in One Giant Leap (Holt, 1993), Haddon captures the profound thrill of being witness to the moon landing better than any other picture book; and his concluding reminder that the astronauts' footprints "will still be there tonight, tomorrow night, and every night for millions of years to come" may kindle a response in young readers who think it's all only misty, musty history.?John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One boy's romance with space and space travel,
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This review is from: The Sea of Tranquillity (Hardcover)
Beautiful picture book, illustrations are mystical and romantic. Actually this is the most romantic and beautiful portrayal of space travel that I have ever seen. Rather than focusing on science and technology this is all about a boy's romance with space. The illustrator has done a wonderful job taking what is usually dark and cold looking (moon's surface, etc.) and making them look beautiful, haunting, and romantic. A man looks back on his boyhood fascination with all things space and recalls the night he watched the first moonwalk on television. We learn of the different ways he would daydream of space, making a scrapbook of space photos, etc. Then he watches the moonwalk on TV in the middle of the night and images of the moonwalk are shown. Later, while sleeping, he has a dream that he was with the astronauts on the moonwalk. It ends with more romantic musings from the now-adult man about what it is like on the moon and how the footprints those astronauts made will remain there for millions of years. A beautiful story. The point of the story is just about the boy's romantic notions of space flight and space in general. It is not heavier than that, there are no lessons to be learned, etc. but a nice story for any child who loves space and dreams of what space travel would be like.
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