Spaceman: The True Story of a Young Boy’s Journey to Becoming an Astronaut

Five stars is all I can say to start this review. Five. Stars.

Need more? I have my notebook for you, although I spilled some water and the other page bled through, hence the pink smears.

Not enough for you? You need more explanation? Okay…here you go:

Why I Gave This Book Five Stars-A List

• Writing flowed smoothly
• Immediately sucked into the story
• “Mass” is a natural storyteller
• Vivid descriptions-especially about space
• History and facts sprinkled in, but still felt like a story
• It’s true
• Broken up into parts-keeps you moving forward
• Each chapter leading to the next-great tension
• So many awesome characters-even though they weren’t always described in detail, they were described in a way that you still felt like you knew them
• Smooth flashbacks
• Satisfying resolution
• Emotion

Is that a good list for you? I hope so, because it is really hard to describe why I loved this book. I found myself looking forward to picking it up and that is hard to do with nonfiction, even if they are memoirs. Massimino has a beautiful way of telling a story though and I was drawn in and had to see it all play out. I admittedly knew nothing about him beyond me seeing him on Big Bang Theory. To be honest, that is why I wanted to read it. I was amazed that he played an astronaut on a tv show and he was a REAL astronaut!

I don’t think there are enough books written this way for young readers. It was fun, it was full of information so a bit challenging at times, but it was powerful. I want my students to read more stories about people who have to fight for their dreams. People who started out as kids like them. Those are the stories missing from my classroom library.

I hope you get out, or stay in and order online, a copy of this book. It came out last month, so it should be available!

Before I go, I want to say THANK YOU to Random House Kids for sharing an ARC with our Lit Review Crew. We appreciate you so much.

What are you reading?