Book Talk: Team Moon

 I’m hoping that many of my students will be sharing summer Book Talks with you on this blog.  After a lovely summer swim, what could be better than plopping in the hammock to read, right?

I have been catching up on my lists of children’s literature to peruse.  Our wonderful town librarian has been helping me to check out award winners and books on various “best” lists.  Here is one that I just loved.

Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh has such a unique perspective.  She shares the story of Apollo 11 through the eyes of 400,000 people who worked on various teams to accomplish the goal.  It’s not often a nonfiction picture book offers as many surprises as this one did to me.  For example, I had not realized that the suits were custom-made by specially trained seamstresses or that many of the scientists did calculations by hand because the computers at that time had only about the computing power of today’s hand-held calculators.  I never knew they worried over the possibility of “moon bugs”.

I enjoyed the visual presentation of the book as well, with striking black pages and white text.  Each page has large, fascinating photographs to help you be even more amazed.  Thimmesh modeled thorough research by including many pages of her sources, and she included wonderful lists of ideas for further exploration.  Your whole family might enjoy reading and discussing this one together.

If your child has a Book Talk in mind, e-mail me his or her thoughts, or let me know to give your family a call and do an interview.  Happy reading!

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