Tickets (not to mention affordable ones) may still be a few years off…but it’s never too soon to start planning.
With a new era of commercial space flight in the offing, here’s a timely guide for young prospective travelers headed to choice astro-destinations.
Whether the itinerary features a suborbital flight, extended stays aboard the International Space Station, or longer excursions to the moon, Mars, a comet, Jupiter, or Saturn, McMahon supplies not only advice about preparing for each journey and coping with issues from boredom to bone loss, but also suggestions for appropriate activities. These include swimming in a zero-gravity pool, spotting certain terrestrial landmarks from orbit, or windsurfing on Saturn’s moon Titan. The author fills in background facts about major sights on the planets and other destinations, and he describes several spacecraft currently operational or under development. Additional reflections from such experienced astronauts as Chris Hadfield and Sunita Williams, plus plenty of color photos complementing Holinaty’s illustrations, bring space tourism that much closer to seeming like a real thing. Frank cautionary references to “consciousness-losing, barf-inducing g-forces” and other hazards only serve to buff up the promise that the experience of space travel will be a vivid one. Humans in the photos are diverse, as are Holinaty’s cartoon figures of space-suited young travelers.
Tickets (not to mention affordable ones) may still be a few years off…but it’s never too soon to start planning. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77138-032-4
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read.
A solid new entry in Mann’s exemplary tour of the modern world’s architectural wonders (The Taj Mahal, 2008, etc.).
Even sticking to the basic facts, as the author does, the story of how Lady Liberty was conceived, constructed and bestowed makes a compelling tale. Pointing to the disparate long-term outcomes of the American and French revolutions to explain why the U.S. system of government became so admired in France, Mann takes the statue from Edouard Laboulaye’s pie-in-the-sky proposal at a dinner party in 1865 to the massive opening ceremonies in 1886. Along the way, she highlights the techniques that sculptor Bartholdi used to scale up his ambitious model successfully and the long struggle against public indifference and skepticism on both sides of the Atlantic to fund both the monument itself and its base. Witschonke supplements an array of period photos and prints with full-page or larger painted reconstructions of Bartholdi’s studio and workshop, of the statue’s piecemeal creation and finally of the Lady herself, properly copper colored as she initially was, presiding over New York’s crowded harbor. As she still does.
It’s not exactly an untold tale, but this new telling is worth the read. (measurements, bibliography, "The New Colossus") (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-931414-43-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Mikaya Press
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
McMahon’s enthusiasm for his topic may get readers off the ground—but not into orbit. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
A buoyant but slapped-together look at current and future efforts to get more people into space.
This brief survey includes a quick history of space flight, mentions of and quotes from several astronauts or actual space tourists and enticing glimpses of space hotels, a space elevator and possible tourist destinations on other planets. Unfortunately, this enticing subject is bogged down by incomplete explanations and occasionally misleading claims. Readers will be unenlightened by the author’s non-explanation of zero gravity and perhaps actively confused by the introduction of the term "microgravity." Further, one section implies that Bigelow Aerospace is simply in the space-hotel business (a claim denied on the company’s site) rather than the more complex commercial venture it is. Mora’s bland painted representations of the space shuttle, SpaceShipOne and other craft don’t measure up to photos and commercially produced graphic images easily found elsewhere. Five low-tech projects seek to complement the material, ranging from a doable cardboard centrifuge to a challenging multi-stage balloon rocket and a “space vacation plane” so complex that all the instructions had to be moved to an online site.
McMahon’s enthusiasm for his topic may get readers off the ground—but not into orbit. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55453-368-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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