Destination Moon

What Is The Story?

Destination moon was the actual goal of so many countries around the world. The space race was real. This is an old story for many of us, but our children do not know it. How do we best explain the “destination moon” race best?

To The Moon by Jeffrey Kuger is a fantastic non-fiction chapter book version of the story of Apollo 8. The story will carry your child from the start of the training for the mission to the moon through to that famous moment when the astronauts recited the start of the beginning of the book of Genesis for the world with a live transmission while orbiting the moon.

While a nonfiction book, the author expertly weaves a narrative through historical accounts that create a building excitement throughout the story.

As Anders, Lovell, and Borman spoke via radio back to every American on earth. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . .”

A fantastic way for your child to learn about the history of man’s exploration in space and the exciting part our country played.

In the epilogue, the author provides a summary of the further history of the Apollo missions. The book ends with an extensive glossary followed by pictures of the astronauts and their spacecrafts as well as schematics and labeled diagrams of the Apollo 8.

Overall you could easily use this book, along with a documentary and a trip to a space museum as a summer unit study for a child who is interested in space.

Who Is This Book Good For?

You can use this book with your middle grade child to teach an important part of history in an exciting way.

But first, you need to get the book!

From The Publisher

The exciting and inspiring true story of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceship to break free of the Earth’s orbit and reach the moon, by the best-selling author of Apollo 13.The year was 1968, and the American people were still reeling from the spacecraft fire that killed the Apollo 1 crew a year earlier. On top of that, there were rumors that the Russian cosmonauts were getting ready to fly around the moon. NASA realized that they needed to take a bold step–and that they needed to take it now. They wanted to win the space race against Russia and hold true to President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. So in a risky move, a few days before Christmas of that year, they sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders to the moon! This book about the exciting and inspiring true story of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceship to break free of Earth’s orbit and reach the moon, tells the story of these three brave men, the frantic rush to get their rocket ready, and the journey that gave the American people–and the world–a new look at the planet we live on and the corner of space we inhabit.

Title: To The Moon!

By Jeffrey Kluger
Ages: 10-Adult
288 pages
Philomel Books
published March 20, 2018
$17.99