There is also the story of Alan Shepard,who managed to get the command of Apollo 14,at the ripe age of 47,much to the dismay of the others,who had been waiting in line. Unfortunately, the future I envisioned and hoped for (and which showcased itself spectacularly in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey) never materialized. The last manned lunar flight was 47 years ago, in 1972. Today, of the 12 men who walked on the moon, only four are still alive. Of the additional 14 men who went to the moon without setting foot on it, only eight are still living. All of these living lunar explorers are now very old. I feel fortunate to have witnessed such a unique and great achievement in my lifetime. But, as NASA administrator George Low said to retiring lunar astronaut Stu Roosa, “You know, there will never be another Apollo in anybody’s life.” As mentioned, this book gives me almost unlimited ideas of ways it could be used with a KS1 class across the curriculum, not just an English, so I think it could be a really affective text with the right class.

How and by whom are perceptions of difference transformed, and with what implications for future relations? What a personally powerful book. A Man on the Moon is such a wonderful reminder of what we are capable of as a species and what wonderful things we can accomplish when we work together. I hope to see a man on the moon in my lifetime, although I doubt it will happen, which is a shame. Good resource for the study of space- starting talk about the different planets, the fact that in space there is not gravity, the distance between Earth and the moon, among other planets. As I already pointed out, I’ve been captivated by the space program since I was a kid. I knew I didn’t have the right stuff, so I never dreamed of being an astronaut myself. At that age, I dreamed of moving to the woods and living in a log cabin, like Grizzly Adams, and having adventures in the wilderness, but that’s a different story. My point is, I may be biased in favor of this subject, or maybe I’m in a good position to know that this book hits the right notes.

To investigate suffixes: -y suffix

SPaG- there is some interesting vocabulary used in this book that might possibly be new to pupils in KS1, such as somersaults, souvenir, stilts, craters, astronauts. It also acts as a good lead on to talking about the difference between writing about yourself and writing from a different perspective. Pupils could write their own day in the life, either of themselves, or maybe someone else like is done in the book.

The story starts by introducing Bob in his home and explaining his morning routine and his journey to work. Following on from this it also shows the process of Bob getting ready for work at the launch pad, specifically the time he has to arrive, be ready and leave by, which is a recurring theme throughout the book. The book then goes into detail of what Bob does at work on the moon such as keeping it clean and tidy, and giving guided tours. Another recurring theme within the book is the phrase “there’s no such thing as aliens” which may encourage speculation among the children reading and provoke discussion. The story then explains the process of the end of Bob’s day and his journey home. The story finishes with Bob’s evening routine and a question about whether aliens really do exist. It never ceases to amaze me that true life figures are so impressive when their stories are told -- whether they are really impressive or not. Is this all just spin? Is it the grandeur of their accomplishments? Whatever. I love hearing tales of Crazy Horse and Custer, of Henry V or Julius Caesar or Cleopatra. But right now I most love to hear the stories of the Astronauts and Cosmonauts. Chaikin talks about the spiritual awakening that astronauts experienced once they walked on the moon and looked up into the bleak lunar sky to see the earth floating above them. So much so was this feeling one astronaut left NASA on his return to earth to set up a christian religious outreach organisation. What a fabulous, beautifully illustrated book that tells a unique story about the man in the moon. This is one of those books that reads like a movie you'd want to take your kids to see. I'm not sure what I was drawn more towards, the absolutely amazing artwork or the fantastic story.It is clearly meant to be a patriotic book meant to convey that the US won the space race.But it conveniently forgets to mention that the Soviets won a number of earlier space battles.That prompted President Kennedy to launch the outrageously expensive Apollo programme.It was a battle of the Cold War. I am not a believer in the conspiracy theory of the moon landings. There were just too many people involved, and that many people simply can't be counted upon to keep their mouths shut for all these years. Children love clueless Bob and the aliens who ‘aren’t really there’. Bob is as silly as he looks and it is fun to play with the idea of a grown up with such an important job (keeping the moon clean and tidy and performing for space tourists) can be so oblivious to what we can see (as the adult, it’s fun to pretend you can’t see them too). This worked really well as a class text with year 1 children, lots of opportunities to explore inference and dramatic irony and both the story and the beautiful oil painting illustrations capture their imagination enough to provide a term’s worth of activities alongside topic exploration: Upcoming works to be published in May 2009 are Voices from the Moon (Viking Studio) featuring excerpts from his conversations with Apollo astronauts, and Mission Control, This is Apollo (Viking Childrens) a book for middle-school readers illustrated with paintings by Apollo moonwalker Alan Bean. The story is told in third person which allows the reader to feel that they are following Bob closely, allowing them to warm to the character, making him likeable. The story is set in the style of “a day in the life” and uses time to show this. This technique makes it easy for children to follow as it allows them to relate it to their day to day life, such as getting up and having breakfast and having a bath before going to bed.

Creating a timeline of Bob’s day looking at sequencers, first, then, next... Children then create their own timelines of their ideal day on the moon. This tale starts off perfectly happy but once Pitch, the King of Nightmares, finds out that this boy has never had a nightmare he vows to make the boy his own and deem him the Prince of Nightmares. In the outcome of the battle the boy is left alone on the moon to be raised by the Moonbots, Moonmice and giant Glowworms who were also left behind. As he grows, he discovers the planet Earth through his father's telescope & realises that there are children on the far away planet that are much like him. As the children's lost balloons float up to him he finds that he can hear their hopes and dreams if he held them to his ear. Man on the moon (a day in the life of Bob) follows the life of Bob for the day as he goes about his day as an astronaut. It is set between earth and space and shows Bob’s transition between the two and has elements of real life in the sense of his morning and evening routine and some elements of fantasy such as tourist tours to the moon. Bob is known as the Man on the Moon and is the main character in this story, insight is given into the tasks he does on a daily basis such as “changing into his special man on the moon suit” and entertaining tourist spaceships. The book also briefly introduces two characters who are Bob’s friends; Billy the man on Mars and Sam the man on Saturn. I was 10 years old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. I truly felt that this “giant leap for mankind” represented not so much the culmination and achievement of a hard-fought, eight-year goal, but more of a new beginning of a far more wondrous and adventurous future. It inspired me to want to be an active participant in the shaping of that future.

Curriculum

Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with the astronauts and mission personnel, this is the story of the twentieth century's greatest human achievement, minute-by-minute, through the eyes of those who were there.