Tuesday, June 19, 2007

4. Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherin Thimmesh




Nonfiction book annotation
By: Angela Wilcox

80 pages

Thimmesh, C. (2006). Team moon: how 400,000 people landed Apollo 11 on the moon. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Author Creditability: Catherine Thimmesh is very passionate about space. She conducted a lot of research for this book including sorting through tons of documents and paperwork on Apollo missions and conducting interviews with those involved with the Apollo 11 mission. It is her dream to some day go to space herself.

Summary: This specialized book takes the reader on a journey of Apollo 11. It is not the journey you would normally think of when you hear about Apollo 11. Instead this book is like a behind the scenes documentary of everyone who helped get the astronauts to the moon. This includes the 400,000 individuals that helped with the process, such as: seamstresses who sewed the space suits, engineers, flight directors, suit testers, photo developers, aerospace technicians, and many more. This book really helps one to understand how many people it really takes to work for NASA and help with our space missions.




Most Important Access Features: This book is full of access features. There are sidebars located in this book; they are just at the bottom of the page. They give a detailed description about the photograph along with inserted information and background knowledge about the photograph as well. In the beginning of the book there is a map that shows the flight path Apollo 11 took to get to the moon and home. In the back of the book there is a note from the author and a list of all her sources including who she had interview with, books, websites, and documents. There is also a list of sources where the reader can do further investigations on their own about certain topics and explorations. It then continues to an index and a glossary of important terms.

Description of Illustrations: Photographs were used in this book from NASA and various other resources. They really make this book come to life and make the reader feel like you are right there in outer space or looking at the various objects and modules in real life.

Grade Level & Uses: This book would be good for the middle school ages. It is a great book to use for research on space missions and NASA.

Standards: 6th grade science: 6. Model the structure of the Earth system past and present.
Investigate the Earth in relation to the solar system.
7th grade science: 7. Explain the causes of lunar phases, eclipses, and Earth’s seasons.
8th grade science: 7. Describe the appearance and nature of our galaxy and the universe.



Related Texts & How Related: The following books can be used with this one to teach about Apollo missions and about how we got to the moon.
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin
Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon by David Reynolds

Quality/Awards:
The Robert F. Sibert Medal

Personal Response to Book: Wow! What an eye-opener. I would have never known how many people it really took to get us to the moon. I love the approach that Thimmesh used at getting the perspectives of the people behind the scenes. They are just as important as the people who went to the moon because they could not have gotten there without them.

2 comments:

I love nonfiction said...

I haven't read this book yet but know I must!

I had never considered that seamstresses made the spacesuits! I don't know who I thought made them--400,000 people for a mission--wow! that's a lot!!

Stephanie B. said...

This sounds like a really interesting book! If you have not read The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon, you should. It is a fascinating story about Michael Collins who was a part of the crew on the Apollo 11. He didn`t actually step foot on the moon, but played an important role in the mission.