ALA Booklist (Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2001)

In this heavily illustrated book, Siy looks at our fascination with the moon, spotlighting Project Apollo. Many excellent, captioned photos provide portraits of the moon and those who have explored it, though some of the illustrations, such as a full-page painting of future astronauts on Mars and a photomontage of the planets, seem less pertinent to the topic. In fact, the attempt at broad coverage, ranging from prehistoric people at Stonehenge to the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to hypothetical future space missions, leaves less room for depth and detail within the main topic. Still, the core of the book, which briefly describes the Apollo 11 mission, is well written and nicely illustrated for students at this grade level. For larger collections.

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2001)

Color photographs from the Apollo lunar missions are the primary draw of this brief overview. The adequate text delivers a merely anecdotal history of the early space program, which culminated in the Apollo 11 mission, and also briefly addresses the possibility of future visits to the moon--for scientific reasons, industrial purposes, and even tourism. A time line is included. Bib.

Kirkus Reviews

In this glossy photo essay, the author briefly recounts the study and exploration of the moon, beginning with Stonehenge and concluding with the 199899 unmanned probe, Lunar Prospector. Most of the dramatic photographs come from NASA and will introduce a new generation of space enthusiasts to the past missions of Project Mercury, Gemini, and most especially the moon missions, Apollo 117. There are plenty of photographs of various astronauts in space capsules, space suits, and walking on the moon. Sometimes photographs are superimposed one on another, making it difficult to read. For example, one photograph shows the command module Columbia as photographed from the lunar module and an insert shows the 15-layer space suit and gear Neil Armstrong would wear for moonwalking. That's a lot to process on one page. Still, the awesome images of footprints on the moon, raising the American flag, and earthrise from the moon, cannot help but raise shivers. The author concludes with a timeline of exploration, Web sites, recommended books, and picture credits. For NASA memorabilia collectors, end papers show the Apollo space badges for missions 1117. Useful for replacing aging space titles. (Nonfiction. 8-11)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-This outstanding look at our venture to the Moon combines a generous array of full-color photos with lively, if concise, descriptions of the Apollo Program, its predecessors, and the early history of rocketry. A look at the Moon's face in different phases gives way to portraits of Galileo and Robert Goddard's homemade-looking rocket, followed by shots of astronauts posing in and out of their massive spacesuits. Artists' conceptions of futuristic lunar colonies, a composite look at the other planets on our upcoming itinerary, and, finally, a parting view of a dusty, desolate moonscape round out the presentation. Siy binds the illustrations together with summary accounts of several of those long-ago Apollo missions, adding salient details and humorous comments made by the astronauts. Readers with an interest in these dramatic events will welcome the lists of books and Web sites at the end. A wildly exaggerated claim for the magnifying power of Galileo's telescope aside, this title ably captures both the magnitude of the technological achievement, and, even more strongly than Mary Ann Fraser's One Giant Leap (Holt, 1995), that heady feeling of going where none had gone before.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.