Book Review: Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed and Stasia Burrington

Mae Among the Stars
by Roda Ahmed (j Biography Jemison)

Charming picture-book biography of astronaut/scientist Mae Jemison. At its heart, this is an inspiring story about a young girl and the grit and determination it took for her to follow her dream to become a space explorer. But it’s also a good general lesson for any child to not allow ridicule and disbelief from the people around you to prevent you from reaching for your goals.

Adorable story, with very nice artwork from Stasia Burrington. I only wish it had been a little longer, and that it covered more of the kind of education Jemison had to acquire to reach her dream of becoming an astronaut. Still…very nicely told!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try I Am Neil Armstrong, by Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos.]

[ publisher’s official Mae Among the Stars web site ] | [ official Roda Ahmed web site ] | [ official Stasia Burrington web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: 8 Days: To the Moon and Back

8 Days: To the Moon and Back
(DVD 629.454 Eig)

Educational and entertaining at the same time, 8 Days is a docudrama. It takes archival video and still footage from CBS news and NASA, and recently declassified cockpit audio-recordings from the Apollo 11 capsule, and combines them with performances by three British actors as Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, to recreate the 8-day journey of Apollo 11 from the launchpad to the the moon and back home. With 2019 being the 50th anniversary of this moon landing mission, many of the details this documentary covers may have already gotten some detailed coverage. But I’ll have to admit — though I watched a lot of other TV specials, and the Apollo 11 documentary that was released to theaters earlier this year, there were a few bits in this one that I’d never heard before, particularly the chit-chat between the astronauts as they flew. These are re-created here with the contemporary actors lip-synching (very effectively) to the original cockpit recordings!

The special effects shots of the Apollo 11 craft components in orbit around the moon add to the “magnificent desolation” that they experienced. My only complaint is that the actors who portrayed the three astronauts didn’t really resemble the actual men in any way whatsoever, so any time they were on screen, I wasn’t really sure who was playing who. Otherwise, highly recommended. It’s only 55 minutes long, and I wished it was a full two hours!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the documentary Apollo 11.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official 8 Days page on the BBC web site ]

See a number of other Apollo 11-related reviews in the July 2019 Staff Recommendations

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
by Brian Floca (j 629.454 Flo)

This updated edition of the 2009 non-fiction picture book is suitable for low to middle grade readers but I enjoyed it as well, particularly for its attention to detail combined with a poetically flowing narrative. Thus, it could be appealing to anyone with an interest in the history of the moon missions. Bonus points are awarded for endpapers which give a graphic timeline of the stages of Apollo 11’s journey and a synopsis of how it was accomplished.

[ official Moonshot and Brian Floca web site ]

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!