Recommended Reads: The Moon

"Fly me to the moon and let me sing among the stars" – Frank Sinatra

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others.

The average center-to-center distance from the Earth to the Moon is 238,856 miles, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon's surface area is less than a tenth that of the Earth (approximately as large as Russia, Canada, and the United States combined), and its volume is about 2 percent that of Earth.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a robotic spacecraft which the United States plans to place in orbit around the Moon. The LRO will be looking for water on the moon's surface, among other things. The launch date, originally planned for October 2008, is currently scheduled for June 17, 2009.

Recorded cassette (RC), digital books (DB), braille (BR), and large print (LT) copies of these books about the Moon are available from the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.

Prepared by Rachel Gould
Children's Resource and Services Librarian

What the Moon is Like by Franklyn M. Branley.
RC 60126
Describes Earth's moon. Discusses the astronauts who have been to the moon's surface and what they found when they walked there. Includes learning activities. For grades K-3.

The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide by Niel F. Comins.
RC 66404
Scientific facts and fictional log entries from an imaginary astronaut reveal the risks and challenges awaiting tourists in outer space. Discusses air, land, and water problems on other planets; reentry and impact dangers; equipment failures; and radiation, medical, and mental health issues. Examines likely locations.

Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System by Richard Corfield.
RC 66469
A survey of the solar system from the Sun to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Chronicles the technological developments, space missions, and discoveries -- particularly in the last half of the twentieth century --that deepened human understanding of each planet's unique surface chemistry, atmospheric conditions, and 4.5-billion-year natural history.

Touch the Sun: A NASA Braille Book by Noreen Grice.
BR 17022
Print/Braille. Astronomy teacher describes the Earth's closest star -- the sun -- and explains its layers, prominences, magnetic field lines, sunspots, and motion. Includes embossed shapes representing different views of the sun. For grades 4-7 and older readers.

Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book by Noreen Grice.
BR 17021
Print/Braille. Highlights the journey of the Hubble Space Telescope and combines photographs taken by the telescope in outer space with embossed shapes that represent astronomical objects such as planets, nebulae, and stars. For grades 4-7 and older readers.

The Science of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Michael Hanlon.
RC 66702
Using the cosmology and theoretical physics found in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books as starting points, the author discusses alien life, parallel universes, instant translation devices, sentient computers, genetic engineering, space tourism, time travel, and related concepts.

I Touch the Future: The Story of Christa McAuliffe by Robert T. Hohler.
RC 25097, LT 6899
Portrait of the teacher-astronaut written by a journalist who came to know her well during the last months of her life, before the tragic space-shuttle explosion. Hohler reaches all the way back to her childhood, then follows her through adolescence, marriage, career, and training for flight as a member of the "Challenger" crew.

The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy by Michael Hoskin, editor.
RC 62823
Essays that survey the development of astronomy as a science, particularly in the Near East and Europe. Covers practices and philosophies from before recorded history through the twentieth century. Examines the work of Newton, Kepler, Copernicus, Islamic scholars, medieval mathematicians, and astrophysicists.

Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered how to Measure the Universe by George Johnson.
BR 16517
Profiles Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921), who worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the male-dominated field of astronomy. Explains her meticulous recording of "variables" -- stars that wax and wane -- and her contributions to the theory of an expanding universe.

Blind Watchers of the Sky: The People and Ideas that Shaped our View of the Universe by Rocky Kolb.
RC 64345
Cosmologist surveys the history of astronomy since the sixteenth century. Examines the work of Tycho, Kepler, Newton, Galileo, and others, emphasizing the processes behind their discoveries, which Kolb believes demonstrate the "triumph of the human spirit and imagination" rather than the development of a scientific field.

Killer Rocks from Outer Space: Asteroids, Comets, and Meteorites by Steven N. Koppes.
BR 16576
Describes the role that collisions with meteors, comets, and asteroids have played in the history of Earth and other planets in the solar system. Examines actions being taken to protect Earth from future collisions. For grades 5-8.

The Moon by Elaine Landau.
RC 67109/DB 67109
Presents facts about the brightest object in the night sky -- the Moon. Explains the phases of the lunar month, conditions on the Moon's surface, and the formation of the Moon. Answers questions about how astronauts survive in space and whether people could live on the Moon. For grades 2-4.

The Big Splat; or, How our Moon Came to Be by Dana Mackenzie.
BR 16106
Mathematician explores the origins of Earth's only natural satellite. Traces the history of lunar studies from ancient Greece to the twentieth century, weighing evidence for various theories before arriving at the "giant impact hypothesis" that posits that the moon is a product of Earth's collision with another planet.

The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo.
RC 63013
Author of An Intimate Look at the Night Sky (RC 57521), describes his daily stroll to the Massachusetts college where he teaches physics and astronomy. Raymo's enlightening commute, which illuminates the landscape's multifaceted history and nature, becomes not just a walk but "a thread that ties one human life and the universe together."

Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination by Michael Sims.
RC 66861
Describes events in a distilled, ideal day as the line of demarcation between darkness and light creeps around the globe. Sims draws on both natural and cultural history to examine such topics as dawn cloud shows, circadian rhythms, high noon, changing shadows, and the three kinds of twilight.

Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh.
RC 60171
A history of scientific thought on the birth of the universe, focusing on the "big bang" theory's gradual acceptance during the twentieth century. Covers the role of telescopes and modern technology in gathering data and developing methodical proof. Includes profiles of subject specialists, outlining their debates on fundamental issues.

Moondust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith.
RC 61787, LT 6366
Journalist tracks down the nine surviving Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972. Interviews each spaceman--from the first to land on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong, to the last, Gene Cernan--to learn what they felt about their missions and how they reconciled with Earthbound life.

The Planets by Dava Sobel.
RC 60665
Author of Galileo's Daughter (RC 48871), describes the origins and oddities of the planets in our solar system. Each planet inspires the author's reflections on art, culture, or astrology, as well as scientific knowledge. In her essay on the sun Sobel opines on the birth of the universe.

A Briefer History of Time by Stephen W. Hakwing.
RC 60679, BR 16183, LT 5395
An updated and more accessible version of A Brief History of Time (RC 26996). Emphasizes the concept of a dynamic cosmos, incorporating scientific knowledge from research and space exploration--by the Hubble Space telescope and satellites--not available in the previous, 1988 publication. 2005.