Countdown: 2,979 Days to the Moon
Suzanne Slack
January 1967: Apollo 1 sat on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral for a practice countdown in preparation for the first moon launch. Next moment, a spark from a frayed wire ignited the oxygen-filled cabin: Three astronauts died before their moon rocket even left the ground. But each Apollo mission after the tragedy pushed a little closer to the goal until the Apollo 11 mission left human footprints on the moon. The story gets full-page, oversize treatment with each mission presented in blank verse and lavish watercolor illustration. Chapters end with biographical sketches and photos of the mission. (Ages 6-12)
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science
Joyce Sidman
In 1660 science was in its larval stages, a pastime mostly for the leisure class and entirely for men. Maria Merian broke the pattern—not only as a woman, but as one of the first systematic entomologists. Insects were considered a form of life too low to engage the interest of a respectable scientist, but Maria followed them passionately, even to sojourn in Suriname to catalog rare species. Her exquisite drawings and painstaking observation set standards for the discipline for centuries to come. This beautifully illustrated biography paces her life through the stages of butterfly development, giving due credit to Maria’s faith. (Ages 10 & up)
The Grand Escape: The Greatest Prison Breakout of the 20th Century
Neal Bascomb
During World War I, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps faced scant odds of surviving beyond a few weeks at the front, and if shot down in enemy territory his problems had just begun. That didn’t deter flying aces Cecil Blain, Charles Rathborne, and David Gray from attempting a mass escape from Holzminden, the “inescapable” POW camp ruled by a sadistic commandant. Unlike the 1963 movie based on a similar WWII attempt, this account is entirely true, and the escape more successful—but equally suspenseful. Readers should come away with renewed admiration for the courage and resourcefulness of the men of 1918. (Ages 12 & up)
Spooked! How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America
Gail Jarrow
When up-and-coming thespian Orson Welles wanted to produce The War of the Worlds for his radio drama series, the challenges of squeezing novel-length speculative fiction into a 50-minute audio format stymied him. Then someone proposed presenting the story as real-time news broadcasts and on-site interviews. The result, as any history buff knows, caused actual panic among Americans who tuned in late. After introducing the main players, Spooked! re-creates the broadcast on yellow-tinted paper with period illustrations, followed by audience reactions gleaned from letters. “Fake news” and hyper-journalism give contemporary relevance to an incident usually seen as a historical sidebar. (Ages 10 & up)
