Starred Review. The 1969 moon landing is the locus for this inspired collaboration. Aston (An Egg Is Quiet) subtly inserts facts about the Apollo 11 mission into a broader, poetic story about the excitement it generates in an eight-year-olds community. Mae, the narrator, begins the day in church with her grandfather, where everyone prays for the astronauts. Later, as she and her cousins build a play spaceship, she thinks more about her grandfather, a hardworking farmer who considers the space program a waste of money. By the end of the evening, the whole family has seen Neil Armstrong on the moon, and Maes quietly confided dream of going to the moon someday has reminded Gramps of the wonder in his own childhood (afterward, A sigh in Grampss voice/ Made my heart squeeze). In some of his finest watercolors to date, Pinkney (The All-Ill-Ever-Want Christmas Doll) supplies both his characteristically affectionate, realistic portrayals of African-American families and lyrical views of the moon, giving visual form to what Aston evokes: awe. Ages 6 8. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

"The narrator of this picture book recalls the first walk on the moon, which she witnessed as a child on her grandparents' farm. She and her cousins build their own spaceship from scrap wood and metal, but they run inside for the broadcast of Apollo 11's lunar landing. Later, the family gathers around the television again to watch astronauts step onto the moon. As she tells her grandfather, "If they could go to the moon, / Maybe one day I could too!" Near the story's end, Grandpa calls the girl "Mae," a name recalling African American astronaut Mae Jemison. Spaced vertically in phrases like free verse alongside the large illustrations, the text combines dignity and immediacy in a clean, spare telling of events. Pinkney's evocative artwork, created using graphite, ink, and watercolor, depicts a black family captivated, and perhaps subtly changed, by the moon landing in 1969. A quiet, satisfying tribute to this milestone in human history and its power to inspire others." "Phelan, Carolyn". From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.