RAR #131: Books About the Moon Landing

Speaker 1 (00:12): You're listening to the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast. This is the podcast that helps you make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids, through books. Sarah Mackenzie (00:29): Well hello, hello, Sarah Mackenzie here. You've got episode 131 of the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast. This episode is all about helping you read aloud with your kids around the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission. That's right, the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon, is July 20th, and I have got books today to help you read, celebrate and talk with your kids about it. And oh boy there are some good ones on this list. So here's what we're going to do in this episode. First, I'm going to answer a listener question, then to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, we made you a book list. And it's a list full of wonderful books you can use to read about the moon landing, you can find that list at readaloudrevival.com/131, since this is episode 131. (01:21): As per usual, the list is free, you can use the clickable version online, or you can grab the printable version if you'd like to bring it with you to the library. On this show I'm going to describe a few of my favorites on the list, I'm going to tell you the one that I think really stands head and shoulders above the others, as the absolute best books. If you're on a super tight budget and your library doesn't have them, and there's a huge list of holes on your books, this is the one I think is worth owning for yourself. But I'll tell you all the ... there are so many good books on this list, I'm excited to talk about them. And then of course we'll wrap up our episode with, let the kids speak. And 10 kids are going to tell us which books they've been loving lately. Sound good? Okay. So let's get into it. Before we dive in to our listener question, I do want to make sure you know that we have monthly picture book lists at Read-Aloud Revival. So our July book list, as an example, has fantastic books to help you celebrate summer. Some take you to the ocean, others take you out on the lake in a boat, basically our summer time favorites. Now if you are in the southern hemisphere, you would just want to go check out our monthly recommendations of January, because those are going to be our winter recommendations, and you're having winter of course. But in the northern hemisphere, it's all about summer in July. (02:34): Now we do these book lists, monthly picture book lists, every month and we're updating them this year as well, with books that we think are the best of the best for each month. You can get those lists by texting the word, books to the number 345345, or just by visiting rarbooklist.com. So it's a giant free list, it has our book recommendations, our picture book recommendations, especially for every month, those are probably some of our most popular book lists at Read-Aloud Revival. And the great thing about signing up for the list when you request it, is that you also sign up to get our emails, which is great. Because I send you a note reminding you when it's time to put those books on hold at the library. (03:15): So when it's time for you to put those books on hold at the library in August, you'll get a note from me. And when the seasons change and it becomes fall, you're going to get a note from me as well reminding you about our list, letting you know what we've updated them with, and reminding you to put them on hold at the library. So again, just text the word books to the number 345345, or you can visit rarbooklist.com, you pop your email in there and we send it to you. Okay so first step today is a listener question from Paula. Paula (03:47): Hi Sarah, this is Paula, and I have a question. I am trying to get my library involved with Read-Aloud Revival, and I wondered if there was something special that I could pass along to them as information for librarians? Do you have something put together that I could hand my librarian and say, "This is so cool, can you give us a spot in the library where we can pick our books and find the things that Sarah has been telling us about?" Sarah Mackenzie (04:17): Hey Paula, thanks so much for this question, it's a great question, and yes we do have something especially for librarians. We have what we call a library display kit, and this is a free kit that you can request on behalf of your library, or your favorite librarian can request it. It's simply a digital file we send over, and it contains a printable poster that your library can print out and put up, that says, these are books recommended by the Read-Aloud Revival, as well as all of the book lists, all of our favorite books that we love to recommend at Read-Aloud Revival. And what we've noticed since we put this out, is that librarians love to use it to create read aloud displays at their library. (04:58): Which is awesome because it's really fun for a family to be able to come into the library of course, and go over to a display where they know they're going to find some great read alouds. And so because our lists are carefully curated for their read aloud ability, they're wonderful displays for libraries. So a lot of librarians are doing this, every once in a while I see someone share a picture of their library, of their Read-Aloud Revival display, it's pretty awesome. So to get this, you can go to readaloudrevival.com/65. And again you can just grab that digital file and then bring it to your library, or you can let them know where they can get it. (05:34): We have a lot of libraries and library staff who are subscribed to our book list and email list at Read-Aloud Revival as well, and they tell us that they like to follow, to see what we're recommending, so that they can make sure their libraries are stocked with the books that we're suggesting. So we love it when you share Read-Aloud Revival with your libraries, that kit is free and it's at readaloudrevival.com/65. Okay so let's talk about books to celebrate the moon landing. I'm going to tell you about a few of my favorites from our list. We've got about a dozen on the list, and you can see all of them at readaloudrevival.com/131. I'm going to tell you today on the show about a few of my favorites, including my number one top pick. Now keep in mind that we're highlighting picture books here. And I just want to take a moment to reiterate, I know you've heard this before on the Read-Aloud Revival, but I want to reiterate that picture books are an incredibly effective form to read aloud with kids of all ages. I know we have a tendency to think that picture books are just for the youngest kids. But I just want to take a second here to make a little argument for reading picture books with older kids too. (07:02): A lot of times we think of reading as a ladder. And we think that picture books come before chapter books and novels, right? So if you imagine this ladder, we've got board books on the bottom, and then picture books, and then chapter books, and then novels, and eventually we climb up the ladder to what we read as adults. But this view of reading on a ladder where we step away from one kind of reading, or one form into another level, it's not a very accurate picture of what we're actually doing. I think a better picture would be considering reading as a set of expanding concentric circles, right? (07:36): So we don't move away from one kind of reading, or one form of reading, instead we broaden our reading to include another kind of book. So in many cases, picture books are actually written at a higher level than chapter books and novels. Let me explain. Publishers expect that picture books are going to be read aloud by an adult to a child. So that means that they don't need to make sure the vocabulary, the syntax, or sentence structure is say at a third grade reading level, or a second grade reading level. That's why you can get highly sophisticated, beautiful language patterns, and rich vocabulary in a picture book. Then you move in to a chapter book, like the Magic Tree House books, or Encyclopedia Brown or whatever, and you actually see, even though those are fun books, and great books, and they serve a very important purpose in a child's reading life, you actually see the language diminish. That's because publishers expect those books to be read by kids themselves. Kids who are in transition to becoming fluent readers. So when we move from picture books to chapter books, and first novels, we're actually taking a step down in reading level. We're taking a step down as far as the beauty of the language, the sophistication of the grammar and the syntax, and the sentence structure, and so on. So it's really important to remember, because a lot of us worry when we feel like our child should be reading " at their level". We take that to mean that they should be moving up this imaginary ladder. Instead, it would be a lot more helpful if we thought of it as expanding concentric circles. (09:09): So we're reading picture books with our kids, and then we don't ever move away from reading picture books with our kids, we just add chapter books. And then when our children become fluent readers, we add middle grade novels. And so we're never moving away from picture books, like taking our foot off that rung on the ladder, we're just adding to it. And that way we get to keep reading these very rich stories with our kids. It's definitely not a vertical move; when you're going from picture books to chapter books and novels, you're not making a vertical move. As far as the actual reading level goes, you're taking a step down. But that's okay because like I said, it's an important part of helping our kids become fluent readers, all important parts. (09:50): So I'm not diminishing the importance of chapter books and middle grade novels, I just want us to remember that picture books are still an important part of our children's reading life, all through their lives. Now in the books I'm going to tell you about today, there are several that are espec ... (10:03): Now, in the books I'm going to tell you about today, there are several that are especially good for older kids, and I'll point out a few of those to you, and if you're thinking, "Great, I get that picture books are wonderful for my older kids but there is no way my older kids are going to let me read picture books to them." Or that they're going to read them on their own, or whatever, I have a couple of ideas for you to invite them into the experience of a picture book. First of all, if you have younger kids at your home, or if you have younger cousins visiting this summer, or younger kids in the neighborhood, or whatever, ask your older kids to read a picture book to the younger child. That's a great way to re-invite them into picture books, because it allows the older kids a pressure free way to enjoy a picture book without worrying what other people will think of them. (10:48): I think most older kids and teens still very much enjoy picture books, because like I said, the sophistication of the language, the beauty of the vocabulary, the richness of the stories themselves, they are very appealing to older kids. It's that we've taught them to think of picture books as little kid books, and so they are not very free a lot of times, especially teens, to feel like they can enjoy a picture book without that being seen as less than, if they were enjoying a novel, for example. So, if you encourage your older kids to read aloud picture books to younger kids, it removes that fear of, "What will people think of me reading this picture book?" And let's them just freely enjoy a picture book without worrying what other people think, and then we get the added bonus that when they're reading aloud to their siblings, or friends, or cousins, or whoever, our older skills are developing skills of elocution. (11:39): We all know that reading aloud is its own skill. The more you read aloud, the better you get at it. It's the skill of elocution, of speaking clearly, of knowing the tone, and cadence, and rhythm of reading out loud, and the more you practice, the better you are at it. A child who reads aloud regularly to their siblings, or friends, or family members, they're going to be better speakers and oral communicators than kids who are not reading aloud. So, it's a very wonderful experience for kids to be reading picture books to others. (12:10): Another thing you can do, and I know this is going to be mind blowing, is just to read to them anyway, just to read a picture book to them anyway, and if your older kids scoff or say, "What are you reading a picture book to me for?" Or, "Why are you reading a little kid book to me?" You can say, "Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to read this to you, and if you know everything in this book and you don't learn anything, you're not exposed to any new idea, then I won't ever read it to you again." Especially with the books on the moon landing list I'm about to tell you, I can almost guarantee they will learn something, and so it's a helpful reminder. I have talked to so many adult writers who write for adults, and who are adults, and who still turn to pictures books as their first place, their first stop for research. (12:54): Picture books are a condensed and beautiful kind of art form. They take what could otherwise be contained in a much longer book, much longer narrative, and they condense it to its most essential bits, told in oftentimes lyrical, beautiful text, many times like poetry. They pair that with beautiful visuals. I mean, often the kind of illustrations that are in today's best picture books are what you'd go look at on the walls of an art museum. There's nothing babyish about any of this, it is a distinct art form. Picture books are not just for little kids, picture books are an art form. (13:31): So, I think really the more you read picture to your kids, you read picture books for yourself, the more you check out picture books at the library, no matter how old your kids are, and you just have them laying around your house, but basically the more we normalize reading picture books, the more it doesn't seem like a babyish things for our kids to do. (13:50): One episode you might be, if this peaks your interest and you think, "Hm, I want to hear more about that." And episode you might enjoy listening to is the one with Gail Gibbons, we'll put a link to it in the show notes, because she writes nonfiction picture books for kids, and it's really interesting to hear. She writes and illustrates them, and it's really interesting hear her process for choosing what goes into those books. So, how much research and careful thought, care, art form, how much of that all goes into creating a simple 32, or 36 page picture book for kids. We'll put a link to that in the show notes. Okay, so let's talk moon landing books specifically. Now again, these books are on our list at readaloudrevival.com/131. The 50th anniversary of the moon landing is July 20th, so I'm thinking you're going to want to put these on hold at your library right away. If your library doesn't have them, you may want to put in a request that they get them. You know you can do that, right? So, not all libraries work the same way, but many libraries do let their patrons make requests for purchases. A huge part of a library's job, of course, is to supply its patrons with the information they're looking for, and you can tell them, "This is the information I'm looking for." (15:17): A lot of times they will make room in their book buying budget for it. I actually do this all the time with my own library, where I just put in a request, I can do it online, but you may need to just make a simple call to your library and ask them to purchase one, and because it's the lunar landing celebration this year, it's very likely your library will have a lot of these books. But you don't want to delay, because other people are going to be putting these books on hold at the library as well. (15:41): Now, the first one I want to tell you about is stunning. It's my favorite on this list. It's not new, but it's one you probably want to own and have on your shelf. I'm talking about Brian Floca's Moonshot. Now, nobody makes nonfiction picture books quite like author/illustrator Brian Floca. Premium listeners, you will recognize him, because he came to Read Aloud Revival Premium, he met your kids when we read his book locomotive for our family book club. Locomotive is about the Canadian transcontinental railroad. He demonstrated how he uses his different kinds of paints, do you remember that? (16:16): So this book, Moonshot, won a Siebert honor for nonfiction, and it also won the New York Times best illustrated book award. It's actually been newly expanded and re-released with new illustrations for this celebration this summer. And for your kids who love details and how things work, you don't want to miss this one. I believe Brian Floca studied under David Macaulay, who wrote and illustrates the Way Things Work books. So, if you have kids who love those nonfiction, how this machine works type of book, they're going to like Brian Floca's books as well. The text is lyrical, the illustrations are gorgeous. It really makes you feel like you're ... Well, different parts of the book you feel like you're in Apollo 11, or you feel like you're watching it from earth. (17:04): So, it's a unique reading experience, and at the back there's some wonderful back matter, and this is an important piece for you to know for your older kids too. With a lot of picture books, especially picture books that are based on something real that happened in history, back matter can be a launching point for a lot of information. First of all, any information that the author thinks is very important for the reader to know, but doesn't fit in the context of the picture book text, will oftentimes be in the back matter. They oftentimes will tell us where they got their research, or interesting tidbits about their research experience, and in general, I just think back matter is rich for if you're really wanting to deep dive into a topic, you don't want to miss a book's back matter, because it gives you a lot of other places to explore, rabbit holes to fall down, and just a lot of insight into what the author/illustrator were working on, and thinking about, and using as they made the book, and the back matter in this book is no exception. (18:02): So, this is my top recommendation. So, if you go to your library website and you see that the hold list is 100 miles long on all of these moon landing books, this is my top recommendation for the book you probably want to own, if you're probably only going to get one book about the moon landing, I would make it Brian Floca's Moonshot. (18:22): Another book I want you to know about, this one just released this year, is called Papa Put A Man On The Moon. It's written by Kristy Dempsey and it's illustrated by Sarah Green, and this one is based on a textile mill in Slater, South Carolina, which produced beta cloth, which was a fiberglass grade fabric pioneered by a NASA textile expert, and it turns out that the fabric became one of the layers in the Apollo 11 spacesuits. The narrator of this picture book's father works at the mill, and I just think this is a really beautiful testament to all the people, the seen and the unseen, the celebrated and the uncelebrated, who were helping put men on the moon in 1969. So, especially of those unsung heroes that we don't ever hear about, that had to do a lot of behind the scenes work to put Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the moon in 1969. This is a story that celebrates one of those unsung heroes; Papa Put A Man On The Moon. (19:25): Okay, another really great book is called Marty's Mission, this one's written by Judy Young, it's illustrated by David Miles, and it's another story of an unsung hero related to the moon landing. Did you know over 400,000 people helped to put the first man on the moon? From engineers, to mechanics, to seamstresses, to the janitors who kept up the buildings. So many people had to give of themselves in order to make this happen, and Marty's Mission is based on the true story of a 10 year old boy who was brought to a tracking station on the United States territory of Guam to grease a failed bearing on an antenna in the final hours- (20:03): ... grease a failed bearing on an antenna in the final hours of the Apollo 11 mission. So, this was another one that's a story of an unsung hero. And, if you've got slightly older kids who are interested in learning more about those 400,000 people who helped send the three famous astronauts to the moon, you probably want to check out the book called Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 On The Moon, by Catherine Thimmesh. (20:30): This one is 80 pages long, and it's got quite a bit of text, so it's probably for your older kids. It is a picture book, and I love how in the dedication, the author says this in the dedication, "For the kids of all those thousands and thousands of people who worked on Apollo. For the sacrifices you made, the birthday parties, ball games, and bedtime stories that your parents had to miss, because the moon was calling and demanding their time. It must have been hard sometimes, but look at what they did. Thanks for sharing them with the world when we needed them most." (21:06): Isn't that lovely? So, that is a more dense account. There's a lot more text in this one, so you'll get a little bit deeper into the different kinds of people and what they did to help put a man on the moon. Which, I think is something we don't really think about much, right? We think of Neil Armstrong. Of course, we think of Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin going to the moon and being the first astronauts on the lunar mission, but we don't think of all the people it took to get them there. So, I think this is a great book to get your hands on, as well. (21:35): Another one I want to tell you about is A Kite For Moon. This one is by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple. It's illustrated by Matt Phelan. Now, I kind of snuck this one on the list, because it isn't biographical about Neil Armstrong or about the moon landing. But, the book is dedicated to Neil Armstrong. And, the story is about what can happen when a child loves something and commits to doing something big with their life. (22:02): I can't really tell you too much about the story without giving it away, but I loved this book, and it is ... The illustrations are exquisite. I'm told the first time I read this book, I gasped at the end of it, and then clutched the book to my chest. And, I was reading it to myself, so yeah, when I was talking about how you can model reading aloud picture books to yourself, my kids see me doing this all the time, reading picture books to myself. (22:28): So yeah, this is another one that I think you're absolutely going to want to get your hands on. And, it's called A Kite For Moon. Again, it's not a biography, but it's very related to what we're talking about today, and that's all I'm going to tell you, till you get your hands on it yourself. (22:42): Okay, one more, and then you're going to have to see the rest of the list at readaloudrevival.com/131. I want to tell you about one more, because I can't help myself. This one's called Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey Of A Mouse To The Moon, by Torben Kuhlmann. (22:56): This is a fantastical tale of a small mouse who goes to the moon for the first time. It's a little hard to explain. It's not quite a picture book in the traditional sense in that, it's 128 pages long. But, it is a picture book. And, the illustrations are stunning. I mean, absolutely, incredible. And, there is a lot of non-fiction bits and pieces in this fantasy story, so it's ... I don't know, a parallel story of sorts to the real lunar landing, except our main character is a mouse. (23:28): And, there's a great section of back matter that includes lots of non-fiction information about the lunar landing. Again, back matter, so good. This book feels like a feast to me. There's so much here. There's so much to look at in the illustrations. An incredible fantasy story, and then, so much non-fiction. It's just, it's a hard book to categorize or pigeon-hole into a non-fiction picture book or something, but it's a feast. And, my kids loved this one. (23:58): I read ... And, it's divided into chapters. Like I said, it's not a traditional picture book. And, I read a couple of chapters each night to my five year old twins and seven year old, and they were riveted. They could not wait for story time each night. So, I'd recommend this one for I don't know, maybe ages four and up. I think the publisher actually lists it for eight to 12 year olds, but I really think kids both older and younger than that are going to enjoy it. It's one of those books I think you could read with the entire family, and everybody would get something from it. (24:27): That's all I'm going to talk about on this show, but we've got about a dozen on our list. And, you can get that at leadaloudrevival.com/131. Again, I wouldn't hesitate too much. I'd go get that and start putting books on hold at the library, so you are ready to celebrate the lunar landing anniversary in July. (24:51): Now, it's time for Let The Kids Speak. This is my favorite part of the podcast, where kids tell us about their favorite stories that have been read aloud to them. What's your name? (25:07): What state do you live in? Trent (25:08): Texas. Sarah Mackenzie (25:08): What is your favorite book? Trent (25:11): Lion, Witch, and The [inaudible 00:25:14]. Sarah Mackenzie (25:14): Lion, Witch, and The Wardrobe. Trent (25:15): Yes. Sarah Mackenzie (25:16): How old are you? Trent (25:17): Four. Sarah Mackenzie (25:19): Four, and why do you like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?. Trent (25:24): Because it's good. Sarah Mackenzie (25:25): It's good? Trent (25:28): Yeah. There aren't many bad parts. Sarah Mackenzie (25:31): There aren't many bad parts. Trent (25:32): Yeah. Sarah Mackenzie (25:33): Oh, it's a good book. Trent (25:36): Hi, my name is Trent. I live in Fort Worth. I'm four years old, and I live in Fort Worth. My favorite book is The [inaudible 00:25:46] of Narnia, [inaudible 00:25:49]. Kayla (25:49): Hi, my name is Kayla. And, I live in Fort Worth. And, I am six years old. And, my favorite book is The [inaudible 00:25:59], because Daddy gives a picture of [inaudible 00:26:01] to Jessie. Harvey (26:03): Hi, my name is Harvey, and I am seven years old, and I live in Fort Worth, Texas. My favorite book is [inaudible 00:26:09], and I want to be a lock pick like him. Olivia (26:13): Hi, my name is Olivia, and I ride horses. And, my favorite book is [inaudible 00:26:19] Blue. And, I really like horses. I ride them twice a week. Walter (26:23): Hi, my name is Walter. I live in North Kansas City. I'm four. My favorite book is The King's Big Dinner. Sarah Mackenzie (26:32): And, why do you like that book? Walter (26:35): Because they go and eat the invitations. Carrie (26:40): y name is Carrie, and I am six years old. And, I live in California. And, my favorite book is Pinkalicious, and I like the book because she's really funny, and she likes the color pink so much that she wants pink cupcakes so much, that she kind of gets a little grumpy. Brea (27:03): Hello. My name is Brea. I am nine years old. I live in Newark, Delaware. One of my favorite books is [inaudible 00:27:10] by Brandon [Wall 00:27:12]. I like it because I love fantasy, and it is packed with mysteries. Evie (27:17): My name is Evie, and I am eight years old. And, I live in [inaudible 00:27:20]. My favorite books are Magic Treehouse Series, because they find a magic treehouse and go back in time, and meet really famous people. Sarah Mackenzie (27:29): What is your name? Haley (27:31): Haley, [inaudible 00:27:34]. Sarah Mackenzie (27:34): Where do you live? Haley (27:35): Alabama. Sarah Mackenzie (27:36): How old are you? Haley (27:42): Three. Sarah Mackenzie (27:42): And what is your favorite book? (27:42): And what do you love about that book? What's your favorite part? Haley (27:45): About a [inaudible 00:27:46]. Sarah Mackenzie (27:46): Uh-huh. Haley (27:46): A mirror. (27:49): Yeah. Levi (27:52): Hello, my name is Levi. I live in Paw Paw, Michigan. And, I'm six. And, my favorite book is Calico, The Wonder Horse. I like about it, there's a guy named Stinky Pete, and he's a rider in the book, and there's a horse named Calico. And then, there's a guy named [inaudible 00:28:13]. Sarah Mackenzie (28:14): What's your name? Levi (28:15): Ellie, and I live in Paw Paw. And I like Pinkalicious, and ... Sarah Mackenzie (28:21): Why do you like Pinkalicious? Levi (28:23): Because I like pink. Sarah Mackenzie (28:24): And, how old are you? Levi (28:26): Four. Alice (28:28): Hi, my name is Alice. I'm four years old, and I live in Yuma, Arizona. And, my favorite book is Hush, Little Horsie. Why I like it is because there's horsies in it. Sarah Mackenzie (28:46): Uh-huh, thank you so much, kids. Goodness, I love to hear your book recommendations. Remember, you can get The Moon Landing Book List at readaloudrevival.com/131. And, that's it for now. I'll be back in two weeks. If you have teens or older kids, and you have a hard time navigating the book store or library in the teen section, yeah, we're going to dig into why and how to go about the YA, or young adult sections of your library or book store. I can't wait to chat with you about it. But, in the meantime, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.