On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin
and Neil Armstrong became the first two humans to set foot on the Moon, journeying
into space aboard Apollo 11. In this engaging autobiography, Buzz Aldrin charts
his lifelong fascination with moving fast, venturing into the sky, and,
interestingly, collecting rocks! His movie hero the Lone Ranger inspired his
solo bicycle trip across the George Washington Bridge when he was ten. He continued
to seize every opportunity to do adventurous, if difficult, things: West Point,
the Air Force, sixty-six combat missions in the Korean War, back to school for
aeronautics and astronautics specializing in “rendezvous,” and finally becoming
an astronaut in America’s NASA space program. Reaching for the Moon conveys, through its first-person narrative, just
what it felt like to prepare for and then take that momentous trip to the Moon,
to step out of the Eagle onto its
surface, to look back at Earth. Artist Wendell Minor drew on documentary
materials from NASA in creating his wonderfully precise, absorbing
illustrations. Aldrin and Armstrong felt America’s pride behind them as they
placed a plaque to remain on the Moon: “Here men from the planet Earth first
set foot upon the moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” A
helpful timeline – “a century of flight and space exploration,” including tragedies as well as successes – ends the book, a vivid journey in space
exploration. Ages 5 up.
Related resources may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
Related resources may be found at: TeachingBooks.net
