Friends of Montclair Library

Illustration from “You Will Go To the Moon” by Mae and Ira Freeman and illustrated by Robert Patterson, published in 1959

The recent deaths of Sally Ride and Neil Armstrong have us thinking about astronauts and space travel.

When the children’s librarian in Troy, Michigan asked Neil Armstrong why libraries are important, he wrote back:

Through books you will meet poets and novelists whose creations will fire your imagination. You will meet the great thinkers who will share with you their philosophies, their concepts of the world, of humanity and of creation. You will learn about events that have shaped our history, of deeds both noble and ignoble. All of this knowledge is yours for the taking…Your library is a storehouse for mind and spirit. Use it well.

Here are some books from the Montclair collection to fuel your space dreams:

Children:

• I Want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton
• Curious George Gets a Medal by H.A. Rey
• Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
• Floating Home by David Getz
• I Want to Be — An Astronaut by Stephanie Maze & Catherine O’Neill Grace
  Describes what it is like to be an astronaut, some of the ways to prepare for this career, and the work in various related jobs.
• If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
• The Moon by Seymour Simon
• Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Treehouse)
• To Space & Back by Sally Ride with Susan Okie
• Sally Ride: A Space Biography by Barbara Kramer (Rockridge/Dimond)
• The U.S. Space Camp Book of Astronauts by Anne Baird
  Biographies of America’s astronauts with a history of the space program.

Adult:

• First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
• One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong’s Stellar American Journey by Leon Wagener (large print)
• A Man On The Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin (Rockridge)
• Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race by Stephanie Nolen

For more astronaut books, check out this list on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/astronauts