Children's Space Books Books

Keisha's homework was to do a report on a time in America's history and she doesn't know what to write about. Her friends Heather, Megan, Alison and Rose are each writing about their family history. Keisha goes home and digs into her family photo albums with her parents and finds tons of pictures but nothing interesting to write about. She then decides to go to Ellie's attic and tries on a shimmering lavender dress like the ones from her pictures and is transported to Harlem in the 1920's. Her cousin Norma is a reporter and hears that Louis Armstrong is coming to town. When Norma can't "cover it" will Keisha be the one to interview Mr. Armstrong?

This is a great book for children either doing projects, doing classroom work or simply interested in FLIGHT.

I found this book to be comprehensive and fun to use. The author has covered almost every thinkable approach to flight in a fashion that children can understand and enjoy.

The use of projects with each new area of knowledge is great to help children comprehend the involved concept of flight.

I give this book th big thumbs up! Colourful, interesting and fun it has all the components to make learning fun!

"A Light in Space" is a well-written, suspenseful, action-packed look at a relationship between a young man and an extra-terrestrial. After an encounter with an alien spacecraft, Andrew, a young boy, discovers that he is able to communicate with an alien being through his thoughts. This book is an excellent choice for a novel study with students aged 10-12.

There are many books about the moon landings but only a handful about a different aspect of the manned space program, the effort to put a long-term human presence into orbit. This book is therefore a welcome addition.

It begins with science fiction and speculation: Edward Everett Hale's (author of "The Man Without a Country") "Brick Moon," about a round, masonry space station is the science fiction. The speculation involves the "big three" of early astronautics: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Oberth, and Robert Goddard. The first two speculated in detail about the possibility, benefits, and technology of space stations, while Goddard did the engineering to help make them possible. Two unfamiliar (to me) names also appear: Baron Guido von Pirquet, who published articles describing space station design in the German Rocketry Society's newsletter, and Hermann Noordung, who published a book with more than a hundred engineering drawings of a proposed space station. And the groundwork would not be complete without a mention of von Braun's fifties-era vision as published in Collier's, with dramatic illustrations.

The book moves on from there to what has really happened. The first of these chapters focuses on Skylab in some detail but also covers the eventually cancelled Manned Orbiting Laboratory military effort. The Russians deservedly get two chapters, one on Mir's predecessors, the Salyut series, and one on Mir itself. The International Space Station also gets two chapters, one on all the permutations it has gone through and one on how it turned out once it truly became "International." A short final chapter addresses colonies in space, focusing on Gerard K. O'Neill's visionary concepts.

These chapters are very detailed and sumptuously illustrated, providing details on each mission and what they were intended to accomplish, as well as the design of each space station (with the myriad Soviet Salyuts, this is a significant amount of information). The Russian chapters are particularly good, briefly covering the engineering details as well as the politics behind them (as two rival factions in the Soviet space establishment strive to impose their vision on a Soviet manned presence in space). The ISS chapters are somewhat depressing, pointing up how much money was spent before anything was built and how much the actual cost has exceeded the estimates. However, the illustrations are particularly good for the ISS, showing it in great detail as it is planned to be built as well as the many discarded permutations.

All in all, this is an excellent book for those interested in the subject.

This is book two of the Ulysses Moore series, and the story picks up the adventure immediately after the first book (The Door to Time) closed off. In the previous episode, twins Jason and Julia and their friend Rick find that there's a lot more to Kilmore Cove than meets the eye. After solving many brain-teasing riddles and surviving lots of physical challenges, they discover an ancient ship, the "Metis", hidden in an underground grotto. The next thing they know they find themselves in ancient Egypt, courtesy of the magical ship, and there's somebody or something knocking on the other side of the wall.

As we pick up the action, the wall caves in under the onslaught from the other side, and during the mad scramble to escape, Julia finds herself not only separated from the boys, but back where she started, and back in the present. Jason and Rick have only one chance to get back home, and that is to locate the long-lost map (hence the title) which is hidden somewhere in the Land of Punt in ancient Egypt.

Assisted by a new friend, the boys face yet another set of mental and physical challenges, as they learn the complicated filing system of the time (the early Dewey Decimal Classification perhaps), improve their knowledge of Egyptian mythology, and outwit the bad guys (or should I say bad girl) from the present time who's also after the map for her own nefarious purposes. Meanwhile, back in the present, Julia also has her hands full, assisting the caretaker Nestor to stave off an attack by an evil henchman with a plan of his own.

Patterned off the Lemony Snicket books to a large extent, the dialogue and writing style is for slightly younger readers than the ones who devour each new Rowling, Colfer, Funke, Nix, or Riordan book, but would be suitable for the 8 - 10 age group. This is a great book to spark a young reader's interest in Egyptian mythology, as well as puzzle solving and logic.



Amanda Richards

has a down-to-earth, common sense appeal to help parents understand their children's experiences.

My five year old has developed an interest in the solar system, so I bought this book for him -- sight unseen -- for Christmas. He absolutely loves it, and I've bought several more in the Let's Read and Find Out series. This is a slim little volume with some basic facts about the planets. It is simply told and has nice illustrations. It is probably geared to a slightly older child than my son, but he loves it nonetheless. This is a perfect little book to introduce a kid to the solar system.

I like to collect Bailey School Kids Books and they are good.That one wasn't the worst one but wasn't the best. But the authors did a good job.

I was quite disappointed that this book contained much identical material already covered in The Big book of Space Ships

That being said this is a really good book. The illustrations are compelling and informative. And it covers more material than the Big Book of Space Ships.

If you don't already have the Big Book of Space Ships then buy this book!

I will tell you from the bottom of my heart... This book is great... I read it everynight.