Lunar Bases

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- This book goes beyond reasonable future predictions, beyond science fiction, into fantasy that almost equals Lucy Van Pelt's explanations of the world in ``Peanuts.'' It deals exclusively with the future and is illustrated with NASA paintings, offering none of the description of the moon or past moon explorations that might give it a base in reality. Any of a host of other books, such as Darling's The Moon: A Spaceflight Away (Dillon, 1984), can give readers a more truthful look at the moon. Cosner speaks at length of the problems posed by weightlessness on the moon, a subject better left to books such as Billings' Space Station: Bold New Step Beyond Earth (Dodd, 1986). She advocates a rapacious exploitation of the moon: ``Miners won't have to worry about the environment. The moon is already pockmarked.'' She recognizes no difference between funded plans using available technology and unfunded proposals using technology yet to be developed. And she invents strange new ``facts,'' e.g. that you need helium for your metabolism. The one clear fact that emerges from this book is that the author should have done a little more research on the subject before attempting to write about it. --Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Library, NY