JOURNEY TO THE MOON

An 8-year-old science enthusiast takes a surprise trip to the moon with her new neighbor, her cat, and her baby brother.

First in a series for transitioning independent readers, this chapter book introduces Astronaut Girl, also known as Val, a confident White girl who’s full of facts about space. While her botanist mom and physicist dad work, Val pretends to command Apollo 11. Astro Cat and the Baby aren’t the most diligent of crew members (which makes for some mild humor), but a new one soon shows up in the form of a Black boy Val’s age. Wallace has just moved in next door, and he loves the space-themed TV show Comet Jumpers. Instead of exciting Val, though, that makes her roll her eyes. When she watched Comet Jumpers, she “wasn’t impressed. The science is totally wrong,” she says. (This is pretty rich coming from someone whose Apollo history is, in fact, totally wrong: Val tells Wallace that “a problem with the ship’s computer” almost stopped Apollo 11 from landing on the moon, but in fact, the ship’s computer prevented a problem. The computer was the reason Apollo 11 was able to land, thanks to work led by real-life space heroine Margaret Hamilton.) Wallace doesn’t let Val shout him down, and she grows to respect his knowledge in their ensuing space adventure. Purple-toned illustrations are simplistic but energetic.

A passable steppingstone to books that truly honor women in space.