Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight was sitting on a cart at work the other day. I thought that the cover of Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s book looked somewhat interesting. In am always up for a good story and the Moon Landing seemed like a good one. (Plus, I had just seen the end of the Minions movie where they have a quick scene of people filming the moon landing on a stage studio and therefore, that was in the back of my mind making this choice for me.)
While the books subject is a weighty one, and the telling can be dense at times, it is an accessible story (for about 14 to adult) of how roughly 400,000 people put three men into lunar orbit and two of them, on the moon. Much of the historical aspects (starting from the 1500’s and going to 1969) is more interesting than the mission itself, but both stories have their moments. The epilogue deals with modern history to today. However, the last few pages do become a bit poetic, taking reader out of the theme of the main story.
The illustrators are a combination of being simple, but not simplistic, chocked full of details and the main colors comes onto the pages that deal with the men in the spacecraft or on the moon. The history (even the leading up to the day) are in muted tones (sepia one of the stronger used) to show the two different, but connected, story arcs.
The best part for me (as mentioned) was the history. You see people you know and some you have never heard of, but without there would have probably not been a moon landing at all. You see the history of the US, Nazi German and the Soviet Union and how each played a part in creating weapons, rockets and how that came into play. You see how the Soviets were ahead of the US in many ways, especially at a time when they should not have. You see former Nazi scientists defecting to the US and Russia. Fetter-Vorm also touches on the women and women of color who participated, the publics response and the why the government pushed for this to happen despite the extreme costs. Everything is here and more.
An introduction by Michael Collins is included.