Man on the Moon: a day in the life of Bob

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His retelling of the children's classic Pinocchio was runner up for the 1999 Mother Goose Award. Simon has introduced loads of children's books but is perhaps best known for his series of books following Bob the astronaut including, The Alien-Spotter's Handbook and in the picture book sequel Bob's Best Ever Friend. Soon after the publication of The First Men in the Moon, Wells was accused by the Irish writer Robert Cromie of having stolen from his novel A Plunge into Space (1890), which used an antigravity device similar to that in Chrysostom Trueman's The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864). [19] Both novels had certain elements in common, such as a globular spaceship built in secret after inventing a way to overcome Earth's gravity. Wells simply replied: "I have never heard of Mr Cromie nor of the book he attempts to advertise by insinuations of plagiarism on my part." [20] Creating a timeline of Bob’s day looking at sequencers, first, then, next... Children then create their own timelines of their ideal day on the moon. The usual suspects (Apollo 8, 11 and 13) are covered in detail. As is the tragedy of Apollo 1. But Chaikin also gives a lot of room to the Apollo 12 and 14-17 missions. The third part of the book mostly being about Lunar geology. Bartram has a whole series of books about Bob and space, so there gives easy opportunity to explore the world more if students are interested in doing so independently. The book itself does remind me of another picture book I have read, ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, which I have read before with a pre-school group. There is the obvious link between aliens being a key feature, but the thing that really made me relate the two books is the art and colours used to illustrate the aliens. In Freedman’s book aliens exist peacefully on Earth, much like in Bartram’s book, and not a scary invader of the planet as aliens are often perceived in society.

On the way to the Moon, they experience weightlessness, which Bedford finds "exceedingly restful". [7] On the surface of the Moon the two men discover a desolate landscape, but as the Sun rises, the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporises and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. Bedford and Cavor leave the capsule, but in romping about get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. They hear for the first time a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet. They encounter "great beasts", "monsters of mere fatness", that they dub "mooncalves", and five-foot-high "Selenites" tending them. At first they hide and crawl about, but growing hungry partake of some "monstrous coralline growths" of fungus that inebriate them. They wander drunkenly until they encounter a party of six extraterrestrials, who capture them. [8] The insectoid lunar natives (referred to as "Selenites", after Selene, the Greek moon goddess) are part of a complex and technologically sophisticated society that lives underground, but this is revealed only in radio communications received from Cavor after Bedford's return to Earth. As I already pointed out, I’ve been captivated by the space program since I was a kid. I knew I didn’t have the right stuff, so I never dreamed of being an astronaut myself. At that age, I dreamed of moving to the woods and living in a log cabin, like Grizzly Adams, and having adventures in the wilderness, but that’s a different story. My point is, I may be biased in favor of this subject, or maybe I’m in a good position to know that this book hits the right notes. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Indeed, the most appealing aspect of A Man on the Moon is how Chaikin puts a face on the missions and men that are far from famous, from the other astronauts to the mission controllers and even those people involved in the design and manufacture of the space crafts. This is a fun and engaging picture book that I believe would be attractive to students in KS1, and even early years, due to the appealing art style and the subject matter of space and aliens! I think this would work well as a real aloud to the whole class to inspire their imaginations, and also inspire work throughout the curriculum- which I have detailed below. Also,there was hardly any discussion of the colossal amounts spent to get to the moon,and the environmental impact of the moon missions. Included in the book are a variety of photographs, an extensive bibliography, author’s notes, and appendices providing readers with astronaut’s biographical information, a list of interviewees for the book, and Apollo mission data. I really enjoyed this book. As the title suggests, it is about a day in the life of Bob, a man who lives on Earth but works on the Moon. The illustrations are interesting and there are lots of things that could be discussed with the children. In particular, aliens are hidden in every picture but the story says Bob knows “there’s no such thing as aliens.” I think children would find this amusing and would enjoy looking for the aliens in each picture.

The influence of Wells's book is especially visible in Out of the Silent Planet, the first book of Lewis's Space Trilogy. There, too, a central role in the story line is played by a partnership between a worldly businessman interested in the material gains from space travel (and specifically, in importing extraterrestrial gold to Earth) and a scientist with wider cosmic theories. A former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, Chaikin has also been a contributing editor of Popular Science and has written for Newsweek, Air&Space/Smithsonian, World Book Encyclopedia, Scientific American, and other publications. Cavorite again shows up (with similar properties) in the Japanese anime Princess Principal, set in an alternate history fin-de-siècle steampunk Britain. [14] Chaikin talks about the spiritual awakening that astronauts experienced once they walked on the moon and looked up into the bleak lunar sky to see the earth floating above them. So much so was this feeling one astronaut left NASA on his return to earth to set up a christian religious outreach organisation.Creative writing- there are so many opportunities for creative writing tasks as a direct result of looking at this book. For example, writing postcards as if they were visiting the moon, writing tourist leaflets all about the moon (perhaps in collaboration with science lessons), writing Bob’s job description and then applying for that job etc. is the 15th anniversary of the creation of Bob, Man on the Moon, celebrate with this anniversary edition. Enjoy the stunning artwork Simon Bartram has become famous for. Bob is everyone's favourite man on the moon; follow him on his daily adventures., Bob has a special job - looking after the moon. He keeps it clean and entertains passing space tourists as well as giving guided tours. He knows everything about the moon and that there is definitely no such thing as aliens! I really loved that Chaikin covered the entire Apollo age with an eye towards balance: the details and eccentricities of each particular mission are always held up to the overarching narrative of the Apollo program as a whole, which is super important because each flight builds on the ones that came before it. So, at the end, I feel like I've got a much better understanding of spaceflight history. The chapters on missions like 8, 11, and 13 are obviously longer and more in depth, but I was especially surprised how fascinating the more science focused later missions were!