Overview
Astronaut John Glenn heard only silence as heat began to build up in his Mercury capsule. Just four feet behind him, the temperature rose to 9,500 degrees-almost as hot as the surface of the sun. The glow outside of the window was a bright orange. Glenn's back began to tense. If the heat shield was down, that was where he would feel the heat first. Would Friendship 7 return to Earth as a giant fireball?Synopsis
Astronaut John Glenn heard only silence as heat began to build up in his Mercury capsule. Just four feet behind him, the temperature rose to 9,500 degrees-almost as hot as the surface of the sun. The glow outside of the window was a bright orange. Glenn's back began to tense. If the heat shield was down, that was where he would feel the heat first. Would Friendship 7 return to Earth as a giant fireball?
Beverley Fahey - Children's Literature
Ashby limits her biography to the historic orbital flight made by John Glenn in February of 1962. Her well-researched text is solidly factual with just enough anecdotes to keep it lively. Child of the Depression, the hard working Glenn eagerly embraced flight, served admirably in the Korean War, and fought hard to be included among the first space pioneers. The training for the flight and the actual flight aboard Friendship 7 is chronicled with the excitement of a devoted fan so maybe one can forgive the undocumented quotes. It is difficult to fault a book written with such admiration and obvious fact-checking but it is 106 pages of solid text without one photograph to break up the narrative. Where are the photos of John Glenn the boy, the jet pilot, the celebrated astronaut, the senior senator from Ohio? An addendum that summarizes early space exploration has two small paintings of Glenn as he appeared in 1962 and in 1998 when he again went into space. There is no index and the bibliography contains two books that few children will read—Glenn's own memoirs and Tom Wolf's The Right Stuff. 2004, Peachtree Publishers, Ages 10 to 12.
Editorials
Children's Literature
Ashby limits her biography to the historic orbital flight made by John Glenn in February of 1962. Her well-researched text is solidly factual with just enough anecdotes to keep it lively. Child of the Depression, the hard working Glenn eagerly embraced flight, served admirably in the Korean War, and fought hard to be included among the first space pioneers. The training for the flight and the actual flight aboard Friendship 7 is chronicled with the excitement of a devoted fan so maybe one can forgive the undocumented quotes. It is difficult to fault a book written with such admiration and obvious fact-checking but it is 106 pages of solid text without one photograph to break up the narrative. Where are the photos of John Glenn the boy, the jet pilot, the celebrated astronaut, the senior senator from Ohio? An addendum that summarizes early space exploration has two small paintings of Glenn as he appeared in 1962 and in 1998 when he again went into space. There is no index and the bibliography contains two books that few children will read—Glenn's own memoirs and Tom Wolf's The Right Stuff. 2004, Peachtree Publishers, Ages 10 to 12.—Beverley Fahey