Review: Reaching for the Moon

Review of Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin, illustrated by Wendell Minor (HarperCollins, 2005)  

 Those of us old enough to remember the moon landings of 1969 know the name of Buzz Aldrin, one of the Apollo 11 crew. In Reaching for the Moon, Aldrin tells his own story of how he went from a boy in the street, staring up at the moon, to becoming one of the first to walk on the moon.

Aldrin recalls his boyhood, and his dreams that he pursued, each a lesson in perseverence. From clinging to a rock collection despite a plunge in a lake, to riding his bicycle alond across the George Washington Bridge into New York City on a twenty-mile adventure, to graduating from West Point and becoming a fighter pilot, each time Aldrin set one of these goals for himself, he pressed forward until he achieved it. When he read of the first American astronaut training program, and learned that a friend of his was applying to become an astronaut, Aldrin realized that astronauts weren’t supermen. They were ordinary men like him. There was no reason he couldn’t become an astronaut, too. He applied to the program, was turned down, and applied again and was accepted.

Aldrin then tells the tale of his training for the Gemini and Apollo missions. Throughout the narrative, he inserts telling details that bring space flight to light: the liftoff that was so gentle, he had to look at the instruments to know he was on his way; looking out the window and seeing that he could cover the earth with his thumb; trying to force a flagpole into the moon’s dusty surface and finding it would only go in a few inches.

Reaching for the Moon would make great reading for classrooms during units on space travel or U.S. history. It’s also an excellent inspirational book to teach children the value of pursuing their dreams and always doing their best. One doesn’t reach the moon — or any other high-flying goal — without working hard.