Module 11: Moonshot - The Flight of Apollo 11

Book Cover Image:

Book Summary:
The story of Apollo 11's mission to the moon told in a narrative story format. It starts with the astronauts suiting up and follows them on their journey to the moon. It describes their trip and their landing on the moon, and their return trip back to earth.

APA Reference of Book:
Floca, B. (2009). Moonshot: the flight of Apollo 11. New York, NY: Atheneum.

Impressions:
This is a book written for elementary aged students, and it tells the story of the first moon landing in simple language. I was more impressed with the art illustrations that were done in watercolor than anything else. I have always had an interest in the Apollo lunar missions, and this book tells it story like fashion that appeals to the younger readers.

Professional Review:
Gr 2-5 --Large in trim size as well as topic, this stirring account retraces Apollo 11's historic mission in brief but precise detail, and also brilliantly captures the mighty scope and drama of the achievement. Rendered in delicate lines and subtly modulated watercolors, the eye-filling illustrations allow viewers to follow the three astronauts as they lumber aboard their spacecraft for the blastoff and ensuing weeklong journey ("...there's no fresh air outside the window;/after a week this small home will not smell so good./This is not why anyone/wants to be an astronaut"). They split up so that two can make their famous sortie, and then reunite for the return to "the good and lonely Earth,/glowing in the sky." Floca enhances his brief, poetic main text with an opening spread that illustrates each component of Apollo 11, and a lucid closing summary of the entire Apollo program that, among other enlightening facts, includes a comment from Neil Armstrong about what he said versus what he meant to say when he stepped onto the lunar surface. Consider this commemoration of the first Moon landing's 40th anniversary as a spectacular alternative for younger readers to Catherine Thimmesh's Team Moon (Houghton, 2006).

Peters, J. (2009, March 1). [Review of the book Moonshot: the flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca]. School Library Journal, 55(3), 134. Retrieved from www.slj.com.

Library Use:
This book can be used to introduce elementary age students to the first Apollo moon landing. It can be incorporated into either a history lesson or a science lesson..