The Moon Over Star

The Moon Over Star

Author: Dianna Hutts Aston

Illustration: Jerry Pinkney

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Multicultural Book

Grade Level: 3^rd to 5^th grade

“Just think, Gramps: If they could go to the moon, Maybe one day I could too!”

It is the year 1969, where the anticipation is high of astronauts landing safely on the moon today. In a summer morning at the church, a young girl and her cousins sing and pray for the astronauts and hope that one day they too will reach high up to the moon. After the church, the kids run out to their grandfather’s farm to make a spaceship out of anything they could get hold off. They act as if they are going up in space counting “T-minus 12,11,10,9…”. All excited and giddy the kids keep looking up in the sky as if they could see the moon landing. While helping their grandfather with the tractor, they are asked to come inside to spaceship Eagle land the moon. They hear Armstrong saying, “the Eagle has landed.” The children jump and dance and dream that they too will one day reach the moon. A young girl dances outside at the porch while her grandfather watches her dance. She asks if he will join her tonight to watch moonwalk. He replies that he is simply tired out. The girl notices “deep lines in his face-an old farmer’s face.” She still dances and says it’s okay The summer night of 1969, they spread blankets and folding chairs and watch the sky. They wonder what the astronaut are seeing from the moon. The other planets may be. Later that night, they see a live broadcast of the astronauts walking on the moon. All the children jump with excitement. They are excited because the world is watching with them but the thing that excites them the most is that President Kennedy is watching with them. After all the excitement, the young girl goes out to the porch to asks her grandpa “What’s mankind?” He replies, “all of us who’ve ever lived, all of us still to come.” He tells her to follow her to keep on following her dream and ends with “Just remember, we’re here now together, on the prettiest star in the heavens.”

The illustration is amazing. The realistic illustration really makes the reader feel that they too were witnessing one of the historic event, the moon landing. The illustrations take majority of the space but the text is always there to accompany the illustration on the left or the right-hand side of the page. A very well-balanced style.

Thoughts:

I can only imagine what it would have been like to be present in the 1960s to watch the moon landing. I too would have jump and dance and dream about being an astronaut. (I still do!) I can definitely use this book when I am teaching a history lesson to them about the moon landing. This will be a fun book to read to students as it has a great illustration and the students can relate to the character who is about the same age as the characters in the book. Great book!