Astronaut Handbook

I am a Pre-K teacher and my class loved this book! It is very informative with bold and simple illustrations! It is a wonderful addition to a lesson plan about outer space and astronauts!

Back up! Back up swiftly now, because I don't know how much longer I can hold her in. She's coming out, I can feel it. Yes... YES... It's the return of Curmudgeonly Old Lady and there's nothing I can do to stop her tirades! Flee for your very life! Why when I was a mere wisp of a girl of four or five do you know whom every girl my age wanted to be? No, not Mary Lou Retton (though that would be a strong guess). It was Sally Ride. Every child my age knew exactly who Sally Ride was. First American woman in space? How awesome was that? And because I'm talking about the height of Sally Ride fever, we kids spent a lot of time thinking about outer space and what it would be like to travel to the moon. The moon landing was a mere fourteen years before and the Challenger tragedy would happen when I was eight. Basically, space stuff was in the news and incredibly important. Now look at these young `uns today. Do they have the same space fervor of my generation? We're almost prepped to go to Mars, but do they care? Well, probably a lot of them do. But where are the books out there meant to feed their fever? The titles that make traveling in space sound fun and interesting? And not the older stuff for the ten-year-olds either. I'm talking picture book non-fiction titles for five-year-olds that make outer space out to be really cool. Well, there's probably one or two titles out there already in existence, but I doubt that many of them are as enjoyable and visually arresting as author/illustrator Meghan McCarthy's latest. A specialist in the realm of the fun informational picture book, Ms. McCarthy presents the reader with four kids bent on becoming astronauts. If ever there was a space-related whistle whetter, this would be it. Fact meets the ultimate childhood fantasy as Meghan McCarthy tells you just exactly how to go about becoming an astronaut in this day and age. After determining what kind of astronaut it is that you would like to be (would you prefer to fly the shuttle, perform scientific experiments, or do repairs?) it all comes down to studying hard in school and doing well. Being an astronaut means keeping fit, getting along with others, and then the real work begins. McCarthy covers everything from the Vomit Comet and food in outer space to astronaut's toilets, the mechanics of a space suit, and liftoff itself in simple words and phrases. Young kids will get a big kick out of this child-based tutorial on what it takes to reach the stars. It's funny. You might think that a book that extols the virtues of hard work, exercise, getting along with other people, etc. would come off sounding preachy or at least a little didactic. Oddly it isn't like that at all. It takes a good writer to deliver stereotypically "boring" information in a manner where kids might actually listen, particularly when that info is true and good. McCarthy sort of perfected this technique with her picture book biography of Charles Atlas in Stron