Product Description

Join the crew and find out how rockets, probes, telescopes, and space shuttles work! Discover the incredibly diverse challenges that can be met by modern satellites! This colorful book introduces young readers to the amazing variety of spaceships past, present, and ready to blast off into the future. Full color illustrations, clear captions, combined with a simple, descriptive text will help kids to discover the answers to tricky questions such as - What's in space? - What does it feel like to put on a space suit? - and provide a fascinating overview of life and work in the space environment, from the first steps on the moon, to life on a space station. This information-packed book makes an exciting gift and is an ideal reference for the young reader who wants to know more about spaceships and the work of humans beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24685 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-30
• Released on: 1998-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-The full-color drawings of assorted rockets, satellites, and the like are the strength of this beginning look at space exploration. Except for very brief mention of the Soviet Vostok and the French Ariane, all of the spaceships covered are NASA products. The just-begun space station Freedom illustrates space stations; MIR is not mentioned. One double-page spread is devoted to space suits, since "A spacecraft has to provide astronauts with air to breathe, and it has to keep them warm." A suited astronaut is pictured strapped into a MMU (manned maneuvering unit) but other than a few labels (gas thruster, hand controller, adjustable arm), no attempt is made to explain its workings. One might also quibble with the inclusion of the Hubble telescope and the various space probes in a book on spaceships. The abbreviated text is readily understandable and will entertain browsers; report writers or those with serious interest in spaceflight and its machinery will need to consult other sources.
Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

About the Author
Ian Graham is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronauts, and a fellow of the British Interplantary Society-as well as being a fan of Star Trek. He has written several books on space in addition to contributing to Kingfisher's How Things Work series.

Customer Reviews

Lives up to its name
I picked this book out from the huge selection of children's books at the National Air & Space Museum. It has some informative text and lots of attractive pictures. One especially nice thing is that it doesn't just show what spaceships look like but how they work. For example, it shows (better than some other books I've seen) the steps in a shuttle launch or a trip to the moon (it helped me explain to the kids where the lunar module is in the Saturn V, and how the astronauts got into it), and even an astronaut putting on her space suit. For the 4-7 crowd, it's great.

Great book, but just a shortened version of "My Book of Space"
This book is wonderful. The illustrations are colorful and captions are interesting. It is sure to capture the attention of any child interested in space. It's laid out in a manner that holds the interest of my five year old, with a new topic being covered on each two-page spread. However, it includes enough technical information to keep my son interested for years to come.

The book covers how rockets, probes, satellites, and space shuttles work and what each is used for. It also details spaceships from the past, as well as modern ones.

In addition to covering spaceships, the book has sections on space suits, working in space, and space stations.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that it's simply a shortened version of the book, "My Book of Space (My Book of)" (which I unfortunately already owned when I purchased this book), written by the same author. Every page in "The Best Book of Spaceships" is included in "My Book of Space", but there are additional topics covered in the latter. So, I would recommend purchasing "My Book of Space (My Book of)" instead, especially considering they are priced very similarly. If you do decide to buy this book, just be sure not to buy "My Book of Space" down the road.

ONE TO BYPASS THE LIBRARY FOR
I have a 3 1/2 year old Son who has watch the last 2 space shuttles take off. In searching my library system, I discovered this book. After checking it out serveral times, I decided to just buy the book because I'm tired of renewing the check-out and waiting for it to come back to the library. It's kind of fun watching his imagination with spaceships take off from this book (Everything that is not a spaceship or a rocket is now a spaceship or a rocket). I have seen other books in the library on space, but nothing with images that caputre the attention of my son. Everytime I come home with this book, his eyes light up and he starts flipping though the pages.