Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards))

Book Description

Here is a rare perspective on a story we only thought we knew. For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous. It belongs to the seamstress who put together twenty-two layers of fabric for each space suit. To the engineers who created a special heat shield to protect the capsule during its fiery reentry. It belongs to the flight directors, camera designers, software experts, suit testers, telescope crew, aerospace technicians, photo developers, engineers, and navigators. Gathering direct quotes from some of these folks who worked behind the scenes, Catherine Thimmesh reveals their very human worries and concerns. Culling NASA transcripts, national archives, and stunning NASA photos from Apollo 11, she captures not only the sheer magnitude of this feat but also the dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance of the greatest team everthe team that worked to first put man on that great gray rock in the sky.

Customer Reviews:

Will use this in class........2007-05-12

I will use this book in my middle school curriculum when I teach about space. When I showed it to students, they pretty much just looked at the pictures. After they watched "Apollo 13" it made a lot more sense to them. Then they wanted to understand more about the technology available at the time. This book makes a great companion piece to "The Right Stuff" and "The Dish" as well. If you are trying to get a historical perspective on that time period and didn't live through it as some of us did, please do yourself a favor and read it. The current textbooks cannot portray the taste of adventure we felt each time the astronauts voyaged out into dangerous places,as students back home gathered around black and white TV's brought into the classrooms to watch splashdowns. Knowing that the support structures have to be so huge may help people both understand why it costs so much to run a space program as well as perhaps pursue careers in the aerospace industry that are not just in the small astronaut corps.

team moon.......2007-03-25

i thought this book was great. i added it to my classroom library and the students love it too.

A Good Read for all ages.......2007-01-10

Definitely a juvenile-oriented work, but nonetheless very interesting and full of information not generally provided in accounts of the first manned moon landing.

An Adventure in Science Fiction.......2006-11-22

Though I typically lean towards fantasy and adventure-themed novels, this was one of the few science fiction books I was able to appreciate, not only for its interesting word choice, but also for its unexpected suspense. The author of this book really paints an image in your mind. The beginning, for me, was something I had to somewhat struggle through, but once I got past it, I was able to dive into the past, understanding the fears of the unknown that the people of that time must have faced. What was it like to go to the moon, to step onto that land that no man can describe? And 400,000...that's no small number, just as it was no small feat to land Apollo 11 on the moon.

~From the reader

Simply Breathtaking.......2006-11-08

I apologize for paraphrasing the title of Dr. Jones's review, but it really is appropriate and fitting; the book does give you "a catch in the throat [and] a hint of a happy tear in [your] eye in admiration for the men and women of Apollo" on so many different levels. Through her compelling writing and her keen eye for selecting breathtaking photos (in Thimmesh's context, even black and white, mission control shots are "breathtaking"), as well as the stunning layout and design she herself put together for the book, Ms. Thimmesh truly impresses on the reader the incredible nature of the mission and the accomplishments of so many who contributed to the endeavor.

I would reiterate the comments dismissing out of hand Mr. Waldron's completely off the mark review (and would ask other readers to consider the response to Mr. Walderon's review by clicking on the comments to his review). It would be a shame if any reader (and particularly children who did not have the privilige of experiencing those historic events first hand) were disuaded from reading the book and sharing, at least at some level, in the wonderous accomplishments of so many. It is hard to understand how one could not encourage everyone they know to read this book; failing to do so would not only deprive someone of (re)experiencing the truly awe inspiring nature of this epic event, it also deprives those who did so much for mankind (and it is hard to overstate the importance of their accomplishments--if on no other level than the perspective it gave humanity on the chunk of rock they share with each other) of some long overdue recogintion.

This is truly a book that should be read by everyone--not just children--to try and regain that perspective. I recomend it wholeheartedly to everyone.

The book is Simply Breathtaking!

Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5)

Average customer rating:

A very interesting and engaging book!
From a third grade reader in Goodyear, AZ, May 18th, 2000.

Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5)
Judy Donnelly
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0394824571
Release Date: 1989-05-06

Book Description

Illus. in full color & full-color photos. "The story of Apollo II's historic flight, from lift-off, through 'The Eagle has landed,' to splashdown and quarantine. Donnelly does a good job of setting the stage with chapters on the history of the idea of flight to the moon, astronaut selection and training, and look at the flight's effect on people in general."--School Library Journal.

Customer Reviews:

A very interesting and engaging book!.......2006-12-20

I read this to my 6-year-old, and we were both mesmerized. The story is told exceptionally well. First there is some "action," then some history, then more action. Practical details about rockets and space travel will fascinate kids and adults alike. And after reading this book, no one will forget the meaning of the words, "The Eagle has landed" and "That's one small step...." It sounds silly, but I actually got choked up at the climax (moon landing).
This is a great book for any kid interested in the original development of the space program, up to the first walk on the moon. I can't make a pronouncement about the reading level (maybe third grade?), but you could read it to a 5-year-old, and I think even most adults would like this book. I'm going to be looking for other books by this author.

From a third grade reader in Goodyear, AZ, May 18th, 2000........2000-05-19

Moonwalk, The First Trip to the Moon, by Judy Donnelly and Dennis Davidson, was based on the United States Space Program in it's attempt to out do the Russian program. The U. S. wanted to put 2 men on the moon and after numerous tries and a few fatalities the U. S. Space Program succeeded. Apollo 11 was the first rocket to land on the moon. I found this book very exciting. I learned much about how the space program worked and what it took to get to the moon and back again safely. I encourage other young readers to read Moonwalk. It will inspire many readers as it did me to study more about the future of space travel and our space program.

Average customer rating:

Problematic, but ultimately worthy
Children of Apollo
Not What I Expected
Fascinating Alternate History
A Clash of Two Futures

Children of Apollo
Mark R. Whittington
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401045928

Customer Reviews:

Problematic, but ultimately worthy.......2007-07-13

A problematic work - I had much the same reaction as both the complimentary and negative in the reviews. I almost abandoned it - but in the end I'm glad I didn't.

I rather enjoyed the plot - actually the politics and intrigue more than the space action. There was certainly a degree of cleverness in the ideas and the premise for justifying the continuation and expansion of Apollo. I also enjoyed Nixon becoming the second coming of JKF in his space leadership!

Although most of the characters were thin, a few were nicely drawn. I found that Kawalski, in particular, rose above the rest. I was also moved by the idealism and possibilities envisioned in the coda. Ahhh - what could have been for a little leadership, pluck, and funding!

Or could it? Perhaps we could be living in 2001 right now if government had continued to provide inspiring leadership backed up with vast expenditures, or perhaps not. It's wonderful to imagine, but I'm just not sure the additional infrastructure - materials science, processing power, battery technology, manufacturing techniques, etc. could have proceeded apace to allow private ventures to realize a profit launching payloads of any significance - especially manned. As such, I found the solution the crisis at the end to be perilously close to a deus ex machina. Maybe it could have happened that way, but probably not. At any rate, entrepreneurial flights to the moon in the mid-70's are a nice dream.

I also found tiresome the pervasive anti-liberal sentiment - even though I am not totally unsympathetic. I can certainly understand why the author would make Democrats antagonists for wanting to defund the space program (Lauren was perhaps an extreme caricature of Mondale?). However, space exploration is not inherently counter to liberal philosophy as the author suggests, and as such it was a bit unfair to portray liberal idealists as grotesque. Many conservatives were also against NASA and manned space exploration for fiscal reasons. But - that is how the author chose to tell his story, and he's certainly entitled to do it his way. (I was wryly amused that Clinton was considered beneath contempt from a man who would justify murder as political speech!)

Plot resolution aside, several other things detracted from my full enjoyment of the book, mostly due to the obvious lack of editing. Amateurish writing, typos, missing words, grammatical mistakes, repeated sentences, etc., all made me feel as if I was looking over the author's shoulder as he banged away at the word processor. And, someone very much needs to inform Mr. Whittington of the difference between "its" and "it's." Junior varsity indeed.

Anyway, the book provides a nice vision of how the space program should have continued after Apollo. It's worth a read for Project Apollo and space enthusiasts, but I doubt the general reader will be able to get past the book's many flaws.

Children of Apollo.......2006-11-18

I ALMOST didn't bother to finish this book (something I almost never do). I'm a fan of "hard" sci-fi, cut my teeth on Heinlein and Clarke, and have a special love for "alternative history". Although Whittington's premise is plausible, he brings almost nothing new to the story, even throwing in some dialogue and situations from other fiction and non-fiction books about the early days of NASA. But what really got me, and I admit I'm a bit picky, was the OBVIOUS lack of editing. Not only is it filled with numerous, repeated mispellings, but even whole words used inappropriately. And it's Madalyn Murray O'Hair, not O'Hara, or O'Hare as she becomes in the end. Halfway through, I thought "This HAS to be self-published", and I was right. Both of this author's books have been published by Xlibris, and they'll publish yours, too, for $375. I'll volunteer to be your editor.
But, y'know, fatuous as I found the writing in the early going, it grew on me, and I found that I actually liked it. Probably won't read it again, but I liked it. So might you, if you can get past the lack of editing.
And to the reviewer who considered it "liberal-bashing", it didn't seem that way to me, even though one of the "heavies" is a liberal Congressman. It was that "either-or" approach to the space program espoused by the liberals of the time that killed it. Pretty hard to tell a story of an alternate history without mentioning that. It would be like writing a real history of WWII without including Neville Chamberlain. And the Speaker of the House is certainly a sympathetic character. Whittington does get in a couple of digs at some guy from Arkansas, but doesn't mention him by name. And you'd have to be in really deep denial to think that the Soviets didn't "run" Americans during the Cold War. Look up the Venona Project. I'm sure we were doing the same (I hope). "(International) Politics ain't beanbag!"

Not What I Expected.......2006-02-26

I expected to read a straight space adventure when I picked up this book. While there is some of that, especially in the latter part of the story, the author seems just as concerned with political and social commentary. This is not a bad thing, in my opinion, as he does this cleverly and sometimes in a humorous vein. I also like his depiction of an early (1970s) space commercialization process, something that unfortunately hasn't happened yet in the real world.

Fascinating Alternate History.......2006-01-22

Sometime in 1969, a CIA analyst writes a paper stating that the race to the Moon, recently won by Apollo 11, has been a strain on the Soviet economy and military. President Nixon, casting around for a way to pressure Moscow into negotiating arms control treaties, decides to expand the space race. What follows is one half satire one half adventure. It ends with a privately funded, commercial space ship on a mission to rescue the Apollo 23 astronauts who are trapped on the Moon.

A Clash of Two Futures.......2006-01-19

Children of Apollo, a story set in an alternate history of the space program, can best be read as a clash of two futures. One (and it is obvious that this is the one the author prefers) consists of a world engaged in the exploration and eventual settlement of space. The other features a welfare state in which governments provides for all the needs of its citizens. One can wonder whether the two futures are mutually exclusive or whether there is something to be said for both of them. Still, the story is well told and the issues well argued. Considering recent decisions to go back to the Moon, the book has become topical.

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One Giant Leap (An Owlet Book)
Mary Ann Fraser
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805057730

Book Description

Through a detailed and suspenseful narrative, Mary Ann Fraser brings the Apollo II mission to life, showing both the excitement and the fear that surrounded the American space race.

Average customer rating:

Great book to teach numbers with!

Counting With Apollo
Caroline Gregoire
Manufacturer: Kane/Miller Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1933605421

Book Description

Apollo is very amusing. He is also very good looking, very kind and very clever. He can even teach you how to count to ten. Pay close attention! You might just learn something else, too!

Customer Reviews:

Great book to teach numbers with!.......2007-09-24

I found this book in a local store today and just fell in love with it. The illustrations are colorful, the text is funny, the dog is adorable, and it adds the concepts of 1-10 on top of all that. I plan on using this book to review and reteach my kindergarteners how the numbers one through ten are formed. A definite A+ book!

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Crisis in Space: Apollo 13 (Survivor)
Mark Beyer
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0516234854

DK Readers: Spacebusters (Level 3: Reading Alone)

Average customer rating:

Alan's Greatest Book Ever

DK Readers: Spacebusters (Level 3: Reading Alone)
Philip Wilkinson
Manufacturer: DK CHILDREN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789429616

Book Description

The 48-page Level 3 books, designed for children who can read on their own, contain more complex sentence structure and more detail. Young readers will devour these kid-friendly titles, which cover high-interest topics such as sharks, and the Bermuda Triangle, as well as classics like Aladdin. Information boxes highlight historical references, trivia, pronunciation, and other facts about words and names mentioned. Averaging 2,400 to 2,800 words, these books offer a 50/50 picture-to-text ratio. The Dorling Kindersley Readers combine an enticing visual layout with high-interest, easy-to-read stories to captivate and delight young bookworms who are just getting started. Written by leading children's authors and compiled in consultation with literacy experts, these engaging books build reader confidence along with a lifelong appreciation for nonfiction, classic stories, and biographies. There is a DK Reader to interest every child at every level, from preschool to grade 4.

Customer Reviews:

Alan's Greatest Book Ever.......2002-10-17

Alan's Greatest Book Ever
October 10,2002

Book Description

Often-overlooked concepts will never be the same. Apollo is not just any old dog - he's a Super Dog! He can divide himself into halves, he can be on the right and the left, above and below, by himself, or in a crowd.

Customer Reviews:

What A Wiener!.......2002-02-28

Apollo is no ordinary dachshund. He is, we learn (and excuse me for giving away a major plot point) Super Dog. Surely few others of his breed can perform tricks vertically, horizontally and diagonally while remaining adorable from every angle.

Apollo (both the book and the dog) are oversized along the horizontal axis, the better to work their charms on us. And those charms are considerable, in the spare words and the witty paintings.

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