Letters From Space: A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

 Former astronaut Clayton Anderson is not a stranger to my blog. I reviewed his previous book A is for Astronaut (also from Sleeping Bear Press).  Letters from Space is just as informative and engaging. As you'll see in the samples below, the illustrations by Susan Batori are full of humor. Kids will laugh out loud as they learn about disposable underwear; food, spiders, and plants in space; and how astronauts fly EVERYWHERE within the space shuttle. 

All of this is communicated through fictional letters "home" to friends, young fans, and family. Because of course, no one has perfected receiving mail from space... yet!

REVIEW

Flight Day 3

In a letter to his mother, Clayton describes his excitement at liftoff. 

It was loud, it was scary, and the entire space shuttle shook like crazy...We went faster and faster, and then--everything went quiet. I started to rise out of my seat. I was weightless!

Flight Day 22

In response to a young fan who just got a puppy, Clayton writes,

We can't have pets in space. It would be neat to have a dog or a cat, but what a mess with no gravity! Where would it go to the bathroom?!

Flight Day 45

Clayton takes a space walk and tells his brother, We were out there for over seven hours and I rode on the robotic arm. I was like one of those guys who fix wires on utility poles. But in SPACE! Man, did I have some great views of the Milky Way and the space station!

Flight Day 125

Clayton shares his favorite foods in space. I love to start my meal with a can of stuff they call "appetizing appetizer." It looks kind of like baby food. Yum. After that I always love a nice can of lamb with vegetables or pork and potatoes. It looks a lot like cat food. Maybe it even smells like cat food But I swear it doesn't taste like cat food.

Flight Day 134

It turns out that when Clayton was little he used to read Superman comic books.  Now that he's in space...he is Superman every day!

Flight Day 148

Clayton is coming home and he's so excited that he's doing flips in space! He writes to his mother, The time has flown by up here (ha ha) and life in weightlessness has been really fun.

End Notes

The book ends with two pages of facts about growing food in space, training to be an astronaut (in a pool!), gravity, teamwork, and lots of other things you didn't know. 

A STEAM book, this will be a great addition to the K-3rd grade curriculum. Not only will children learn science facts, but as Astronaut Anderson says, "Kids LOVE THE LETTER FORMAT. It encourages reading AND writing." 

By the way, most of the names used in the letters are real people in Clayton's life. It was his way of paying tribute to his teachers, college professors, childhood friends, mission control, and his family.

GIVEAWAY

Do you want this book for the child or student in your life? Leave me a comment by January 1 at 6 PM and I'll enter your name. Make sure you leave your email address if you are new to my blog. If you share this on social media (and tell me what you did) I'll enter your name twice. 

A is for Astronaut: A Picture Book Review and Author Interview

To celebrate the International Day of Human Space Flight, I am pleased to give you a peak into a new book by retired astronaut, Clayton Anderson (Sleeping Bear Press, May 2018). 

A is for Astronaut: Blasting Through the Alphabet, will appeal to readers of many ages. Like other books in Sleeping Bear's ABC list, each letter of the alphabet is anchored by a short poem for readers ages 5-8 and a longer exposition for 9-11 year-olds. 

Illustrated by the talented Scott Brundage, each picture amplifies the text as in, B is for Blastoff.

Amazing illustration!

Here is the poem for N which stands for...NASA. What else?

The world loves outer space; it's a grand destination,  

And NASA's the group representing our nation.  

The N stands for National, and it gives us such pride  

when a rocket is launched with our flag on its side! 

Don't you love the young astronomer's t-shirt?

I liked the R page because of the accessible description of Rendezvous. Here's the second paragraph:

Consider the much-simplifed example of a football game where the coach has called for a pass play. In order for the pass play to be successful, the quarterback must throw the football (spaceship one) to the pass receiver (spaceship two) who will catch the ball. The quarterback throws the ball to where the receiver is going to be--not where he is at the instant he makes the throw. When the ball finally arrives and the receiver makes the catch, the play is a success! This is similar to the way spaceships will dock, or meet, in space.

That's an explanation I will remember!

BEHIND THE SCENES

“Astro Clay”–Astronaut Clayton Anderson's story is one of perseverance. He applied 15 times before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1998; and he spent 30 years working for NASA, 15 as an engineer and 15 as an astronaut. He is the first and ONLY Astronaut selected from the State of Nebraska. 

This STEAM book will be a great addition to any school or home library. Here's a brief interview about how this book came to life.

CAROL: What prompted you to write A Is For Astronaut?

CLAY: I was in Omaha, NE at the West Town Barnes and Noble, preparing for a book signing with my first book, The Ordinary Spaceman.  The store manager kept pulling me over to the nearby children’s section.  “You should write a children’s book,” she said.  

Hesitant, I shrugged my shoulders and replied, “Yeah… maybe one day.” 

She pointed out specific publishers, continually mentioning Sleeping Bear Press (SBP).  “They don’t have ‘A is for Astronaut’,” was her firm “suggestion.”  Shrugging my shoulders once again, and feigning only brief interest, I was overjoyed when the actual book signing began and turned my focus onto something I actually understood!  

A few months later, during some idle time at home, I did a Google search on SBP.  It was then that I finally woke up and saw their tremendous success with their alphabet book series.  Electronically investigating “A is for Airplane,” and a couple other titles on their highly populated series list, I thought to myself, "I can do this!”

Immediately I began to formulate the words I would use for each letter of the alphabet.  A was easy… astronaut.  B followed suit with Blastoff.  I was cruising until I got to letters like F and K and I.  Some more research via the internet gave me all 26 letters and a corresponding space term.  Then came the poems. I actually finished the entire book in about 1.5 weeks! 

CAROL: What was the most difficult part to write—the poems or the expository text? Why? 

CLAY: The expository text was the most difficult for me, although difficult is a relative term.  The poems simply “flew” from my brain (do you like that space reference?!)  Writing them was a tremendously fun process. With the text however, a different challenge was presented.  I was seeking to entertain, educate, and inform, while at the same time creating interesting reading material that was technically correct and had the ability to “stretch” the young reader’s vocabulary. 

Certain space concepts (e.g., rendezvous) forced me to dig a bit deeper as a writer.  Often speaking to young children in schools, I use visual demonstrations to communicate some of the more technical aspects of flying in space.  It became a simple matter of putting those demonstrations down on paper.  A second part of the challenge was technical accuracy.  I don’t claim to be an expert on “all things space.”  Heck, I’m just an astronaut.  Finding adequate reference material to ensure that what I wrote was valid and correct, required a bit more digging than I thought would be necessary.  In the end I think we succeeded masterfully, but I’m partial!

When speaking to kids and young adults around the nation, I constantly implore them to remember that “…they are just like me.”  They can be anything they chose to be.  It will take hard work, a lot of help, and a little bit of luck, but the future is theirs.  They must dare to make it extraordinary. 

VIDEO

Check out this fun video starring Clayton Anderson--as himself!