Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon (Step Into Reading Level 5: Ready for Chapters)

Gr 2-3-- The story of Apollo II' s historic flight 20 years ago from lift-off, through "The Eagle has landed," to splashdown and subsequent quarantine (fear of "moon germs"). Except for occasional side comments, Donnelly doesn't go into great detail, but she does a good job of setting the stage, with chapters on the history of the idea of flight to the moon, one on astronaut selection and training, concluding with a penetrating look at the flight's effect both on the three astronauts and on people in general. Despite our space program's huge and beautiful legacy of photographs, most of the illustrations here are bland color paintings that rob the narrative of a sense of reality and give the book a cheap look. Too bad--aside from Fradin's Moon Flights (Children's, 1985), there's little available on the subject for younger readers. --John Peters, New York Pub . Lib .