Laura Purdie Salas

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[Nonfiction Monday] Eight Days Gone

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Eight Days Gone, by Linda McReynolds (Charlesbridge, 2012), is a wonderful nonfiction rhyming picture book. It tells the story of the first landing on the moon, in 1969.Since my dad was a career engineer for NASA, space topics hold extra interest for me. Even if that weren’t the case, though, I would find this book gripping. How’s this for drama?

Armstrong makes his
one small step.
Giant leap from
years of prep.

Edwin Aldrin
hops around.
Boot prints left on
ashen ground.

Desolation.
Silent. Dark.
Tranquil sea.
Barren. Stark.

Wow. What a fantastic book to introduce kids to the beauty and drama of space exploration.The author’s note gives a prose summary of the expedition with added detail and explains things alluded to in the rhyming text, like the quarantine the returning astronauts were put under. When we can tell the true stories of history and science, that’s when we can make even more kids care about these things. This is a picture book I wish I had written! Eight Days Gone is ideal for storytimes (very graphic, uncluttered art by Ryan O’Rourke) and primary classrooms!

(Book source: Review copy I requested from Charlesbridge)

Check out Wendie Old’s Nonfiction Monday roundup and learn about some great books!

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Comments

  5. I loved this one,too! I nominated it for a Cybils nonfiction. Your book had already been nominated so I didn’t have any quandry 😉 plus I’m very interested in space travel. (Hooray for SpaceX, headed back to the International Space Station!)

  6. I loved this one,too! I nominated it for a Cybils nonfiction. Your book had already been nominated so I didn’t have any quandry 😉 plus I’m very interested in space travel. (Hooray for SpaceX, headed back to the International Space Station!)

  7. You’d better believe I hotfooted over and checked that this one was nom’d for the Cybils. (And then I read Lisa’s comment up top. Yay, Lisa!) That was really a powerful piece of poetry. I’m still looking for my non-fic picture book nomination, so keep the recommendations coming!

    • Glad you liked it, Tanita. Trying to think if any of my very favorites from this past year haven’t been nominated. So hard to keep track of what’s published when!

  8. You’d better believe I hotfooted over and checked that this one was nom’d for the Cybils. (And then I read Lisa’s comment up top. Yay, Lisa!) That was really a powerful piece of poetry. I’m still looking for my non-fic picture book nomination, so keep the recommendations coming!

    • Glad you liked it, Tanita. Trying to think if any of my very favorites from this past year haven’t been nominated. So hard to keep track of what’s published when!

  9. This sounds super. I tried and tried to write a story based on a cool title: Astronaughty and failed miserably. I don’t think I’m spacey enough. Adding this one to TBR pile, thanks!

  10. This sounds super. I tried and tried to write a story based on a cool title: Astronaughty and failed miserably. I don’t think I’m spacey enough. Adding this one to TBR pile, thanks!

    • Thanks, Tara. Spareness is one of my very favorite characteristics in poetry or verse, and she does it very well in this book…

    • Thanks, Tara. Spareness is one of my very favorite characteristics in poetry or verse, and she does it very well in this book…

  13. Wow! Thanks everyone for your kind words about Eight Days Gone. It’s so exciting (and a bit surreal) to read such positive reviews. I really do appreciate it!

  14. Wow! Thanks everyone for your kind words about Eight Days Gone. It’s so exciting (and a bit surreal) to read such positive reviews. I really do appreciate it!

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