Godspeed, John Glenn
Grade 1-4–Hilliard follows up hisNeil, Buzz, and Mike Go to the Moon(Boyds Mills, 2005) with another sketchy but heartfelt tribute to a space-program milestone. Combining brief, general overviews with details presented in smaller type on side panels, he traces Glenn's fascination with flight from childhood through World War II and the Korean conflict, and then describes NASA's fledgling missions, including that of the chimpanzee Ham, America's first space celebrity. He climaxes his account with Glenn's journey aboardFriendship 7and closes with a quick look at the astronaut and politician's later career, including a mention of his 1998 return to space. The Earth visible through the capsule's view port is far too small, but the close-up scenes, rendered in thickly applied acrylics, capture a sense of the mission's drama and triumph. There are no leads to further resources, but readers who want to know more can consult Don Mitchell'sLiftoff(National Geographic, 2006), another recent addition to an overflowing shelf of Glenn profiles.–John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.