The Little Spacecraft That Could by Joyce Lapin and Simona Ceccarelli

The Little Spacecraft That Could by Joyce Lapin, illustrated by Simona Ceccarelli, is about the spacecraft that traveled to Pluto and then onward to view a snowman-shaped object in the Kuiper Belt called Arrokoth, sending back photos of both our most distant planet and a unique object that nobody even knew existed when the spacecraft left the Earth. 

If you're thinking of the story with a similar name (The Little Engine That Could), throw that idea out the window. It's not about huffing and puffing through space but a nonfiction book with lots of facts about the spacecraft New Horizons — its size, how it used another planet's gravity to slingshot outward at a faster rate, how important it was to get the trajectory of New Horizons just right, how long it took to get to Pluto, what kind of information it sent back to Earth and how long it took for the spacecraft to communicate with NASA as it traveled farther away, etc.

The Little Spacecraft That Could also talks about Pluto's journey from being called a planet to losing its "planet" designation, and then back to being a planet but now called a "dwarf planet" and how that all came about. I confess, this is the part that interested me the most because I'm old enough to have been a child who had to memorize the nine planets and do projects with them. Like most folks, I was shocked when scientists announced that Pluto had been taken off our list of planets. How and why did that happen and why did it get its designation back, but slightly altered? It's satisfying to finally have the answers. 

I call this kind of book a "picture book for young readers" because it's a book for slightly older elementary level children but which is still picture-book sized and loaded with gorgeous illustrations.

Highly recommended - The Little Spacecraft That Could would make an excellent resource for either an elementary school library or a science classroom, a nice addition to the library of anyone who has a passion for astronomy and/or NASA, or just a fun read for anyone curious about the journey of a spacecraft to our most distant planet and what exactly it found upon its arrival. It contains a very nice, 2-page glossary. 

There are so many fascinating bits of information about Pluto, our solar system, the spacecraft's journey, and what it found when it arrived in The Little Spacecraft That Could that I'm going to have to muzzle myself a bit. It's just the size of a piano! It's powered by plutonium! The only thing I found a little uncomfortable (at first . . . but I got over it) was the anthropomorphizing of a spacecraft in a nonfiction book. But, it makes the book a little more palatable for youngsters, I'm sure, and makes for cool spreads like this, showing the little spacecraft crying, "Wheee!" as it uses Jupiter's gravity to increase its speed (click on image to enlarge): 

Fun and educational! Many thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy! 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

If You Had Your Birthday Party on the Moon by Joyce Lapin and Simona Ceccarelli - Children's Day #5

This is the final post for Children's Day! Thanks for reading! 

When you're weightless, there's no up or down. 

In fact, if your birthday cake floats upside down, it'll

be just as safe as it is right-side up. 

If You Had Your Birthday Party On the Moon takes young readers and listeners from a little after take-off to the return flight to Earth as author Joyce Lapin imagines what it would be like to celebrate a birthday on the moon. Topics discussed are gravity or the lack of it (on Earth, in space, and on the moon), how long it takes to fly to the moon, what it's like to experience weightlessness, how astronauts sleep, what the moon looks like up close and why it looks that way, light from both the Earth and the sun, how long a moon day lasts vs. the length of an Earth day, why the sky is black instead of blue when you look up from the moon and much more.

As impressively informative as If You Had Your Birthday Party on the Moon is, I think my favorite thing about it is the illustrations, which I absolutely love. They're such happy images. Children jump in low gravity, sit on boulders to watch the Earth rotate, play ball, make angels in the moon dust, play freeze tag, and try to hit a piñata. In every case, the science behind what happens (balloons fall because there's no air on the moon; balls fly six times as far because of the lower gravity) is described. There's even a two-page spread about things that were left behind on the moon by astronauts, why they're still exactly where they were left, including the footprints, and why the flags have faded.

Highly recommended - A delightful way to present a science lesson about the moon and space travel. When I signed up to review If You Had Your Birthday Party on the Moon, I expected something a little more silly and less informative. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy of If You Had Your Birthday Party on the Moon!

One little note:

Today is my 13th bloggiversary at Bookfoolery. I usually don't say much about it — I usually just post a picture of a slice of cake with the right number of candles (or number-shaped candles) beneath a photo and a few words about the anniversary of D-Day. But, I forgot to make or buy cake and I feel a little speechless at the thought that this is the 75th anniversary of the landing at Normandy. I was born less than 20 years after the end of WWII, watched the first moon walk from the dining table on a tiny black-and-white TV, and I remember the end of the Vietnam War.

Even in blog years, I'm feeling old. 13 years ago, I had a child in junior high and one working on his first college degree. Now, my eldest child has 4 (yes, 4!) university degrees, a wife, and two children. My youngest has just set a wedding date and is finishing up his second degree. We do love learning in this family. Both of my grown children are avid readers and that is, I think, the best thing about my life. I raised two readers. Bloggiversaries make me all sappy, obviously. To those who are still reading my blog, I appreciate you!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.