Twin Trailblazers: Goodnight, Astronaut by Scott Kelly

I WAS BORN FOR ADVENTURE, A BLUR OF ENERGY TIMES TWO.

Scott Kelly was born a twin, and as little kids, he and his twin Mark fought sleep every night, but their mom said...

blockquote>"DREAM... AND GO ANYWHERE!

GOODNIGHT, MY ASTRONAUTS!"<

In toy helmets made from boxes, the two dreamed of blasting off in their treehouse and from their family boat. They looked up to the stars as they camped in the woods. And when Scott Kelley was grown, he became a Navy pilot, soaring off an aircraft carrier's deck, in a "Tomcat" jet. In Navy scuba gear he explored the ocean floor to learn how to manage in astronaut gear. He trained under the stars above Mt. Everest to get used to thin air. And at last he was ready!

AFTER ALL THE HARD WORK AND DREAMING, I FINALLY LEAVE THE EARTH ON A SHUTTLE CALLED DISCOVERY.

AN ASTRONAUT AT LAST.

From the veteran captain of the Shuttle Endeavor and two-time commander of the International Space Station, living in space for a year, Scott Kelly's brand-new autobiographical picture book, Goodnight, Astronaut (Crown Books, 2021) tells the story of how he and his equally adventurous brother Mark (who has run for public office, perhaps the more dangerous career) realized the double dreams of their childhood in this twin-told tale with illustrations by Izzy Burton.

Since Scott and Mark are identical twins, medical studies of their health in space and back on earth were invaluable to the study of the human body during extended time in space, and the twins were perfect for biological study of the effects of life in space. For more of the Twin Trailblazers, see Scott and Mark Kelly's companion book, Endurance, Young Readers Edition: My Year in Space and How I Got There. Mark Kelly is also the author of the imaginative space adventures, Mousetronaut: Based on a (Partially) True Story (Paula Wiseman Books) and sequel Mousetronaut Goes to Mars.(Paula Wiseman Books) (See reviews https://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Mark+Kelly.)

Lunar Lunch? There Was An Old Astronaut That Swallowed the Moon by Lucille Colandro

THERE WAS AN OLD ASTRONAUT WHO SWALLOWED THE MOON.

I DON'T KNOW WHY SHE SWALLOWED THE MOON. IT HAPPENED AT NOON.

Take a break, Old Lady. There's a Temp Lady who munches merrily on the moon, and we're off on a selective tour of the solar system.

The Old Astronaut chomps a comet which looks like an omelet. In turn on the menu are a meteoroid that morphs into a meteorite on impact, and then a planet in orbit and a rocket is on the diet docket....

And for dessert...

... SHE SWALLOWED A SATELLITE...

IT WENT DOWN JUST RIGHT, THAT BRIGHT SATELLITE.

In a slight dietary deviation from her usual terrestrial tastings, Lucille Colandro's famous Old Lady snacks in space in her latest spoof of the famous folksong, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly-- There Was An Old Astronaut Who Swallowed the Moon! (There Was an Old Lady [Colandro]) (Cartwheel/Scholastic Books, 2019).

With her familiar rollicking rhymes and Jared Lee's trademark scratchy-lined comic illustrations, this latest in Colandro's jolly series also includes a handy space glossary, making this gustatory read-and-sing-along song a handy introduction or review of terms for a classroom unit on the solar system. Colandro also offers an appetizer in the form of search-and-find quiz for kids to spot space objects included in Lee's busy illustrations--a fun ragout of entertaining reading and science learning.

Into the Light! The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge

I hear a beep from my cell phone. I see the low battery icon. Mom will start to worry if she can't get hold of me. I look around and my eyes fall on Professor Forster's laptop. A USB cable dangles emptily.

With a quick glance over my shoulder, I plug the cable into my phone. But as the USB connects with the familiar three-note sound, I see a pop-up appear on the phone's screen:

DATALINK CONNECTED
INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
DOWNLOADING TO DEVICE.

Oh, no. Panicking, I make a grab for my phone, yanking the USB cable out.

Jamie Drake lives on Planet Earth, the only one in our solar system in the "Goldilocks Zone," habitable for humans. His dad is an astronaut at the International Space Station, about to launch laser-powered nano-drones toward the star Tau Ceti to probe for intelligent extra-terrestrial life on a planet in its orbit, and Jamie's whole school is avidly awaiting watching his famous father in dramatic style do it all on television.

Jamie's got it made for popularity in sixth grade. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, first, Jamie can't do his math homework, a whole page of pre-algebra equations. And then his mom tells him that she and his father are planning to divorce--just as soon as he returns to Earth. It's all too much. His father is a celebrity, in orbit on the International Space Station. But Jamie can't help resenting his dad for being where he is and who he is, and for not being what Jamie needs at that time. He's too unhappy to concentrate on math. His life is a mess. But when he runs out of his house, holding back tears, something happens....

Jamie grabs his battered cell phone and heads out for walk, ending at a supposedly closed public observatory. But the door is open, and Jamie's curiosity is aroused. He meets up with a private SETI researcher inside who is quietly using the telescope for her own search for extra-terrestrials. She explains that she's waiting for a download from the Hubble telescope, and while she's taking care of some "technical difficulties," Jamie decides to charge his phone, plugging it into a USB port on her computer. What happens next is something that, despite his father's work, Jamie could never have imagined.

I hear a buzzing sound. It's my cell phone. I look at the screen. Then I see it. At the corner of the screen is a new icon. It looks like a golden spiral and it seems to spin in time with the phone's vibration. I try to drag it out of the way, but it won't move at all.

There's a strange tingle in my finger. A number appears. 0

Then another number appears, followed by another and another.

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377....

Yes, it's a Fibonacci sequence from an alien intelligence probing to see if it is in touch with an intelligent lifeform on Earth. Not only is Jamie enabled to do his math homework, but the screen reveals that the alien he calls "Buzz" is a member of the Hi've, beings who have had to leave their own plane of existence and become pure energy by "swarming into the light."

And when a sudden massive solar flare strands his own father hopelessly in space, Jamie has no hope beyond following Buzz's instructions to save his father.

"YOU MUST STEP INTO THE LIGHT. LIGHT IS ETERNAL.

It's a crackerjack of a premise, in Christopher Edge's The Jamie Drake Equation (Delacorte Press, 2018 Am. Ed.). Despite its au currant theory and technical devices, this middle reader science fiction book has much in common with the plot and theme of Madeleine L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet), as Jamie must call on his own courage and inner light, and with the guidance of his own ET, travel through time and space to save his father. Like Meg Murray, Jamie Drake is a real kid with real concerns who follows his own heart into a plane of existence he never dreamed of, all the while grounded in his love of his earthly family and life. Author Edge skillfully draws young readers into the storyline, seamlessly melding both science and spirit. "With solid science and believable family conflicts, this will be very satisfying to readers whose wishful thinking can suspend disbelief," Kirkus Reviews reports.