In riveting free verse, Suzanne Slade, author of Astronaut Annie, recounts the almost 3,000 days between President John F. Kennedy's monumental space announcement and the moment when "Armstrong steps onto the Moon,/ leaving a footprint that will last forever." She charts an emotional course for readers through each Apollo mission, from the devastating first to the historic 11th. Slade shares fascinating facts like "getting a simple drink of water/ is a challenging game of 'capture the droplets' " and develops atmosphere that raises goosebumps, such as when "the Earth shrinks/ from a basketball,/ to a baseball,/ to a golf ball." She also builds breathtaking suspense: "The rocket engine must reignite/ and push the craft out of lunar orbit./ If it fails, the men will be trapped in space/ forever." The result is a book that will captivate and entertain young readers while educating them about an amazing decade of U.S. space exploration.
Slade's poetry alone gives this book potent gravitational pull, but Thomas Gonzalez's exquisite, life-like pastel, colored pencil and airbrush illustrations render the reader powerless to its attraction. The amazing detail in elements such as the droplets of water in space and the sense of movement when a lunar module spins out of control boost the power of Slade's words. And the meticulously rendered imprint of Armstrong's footprint on the moon launches modern readers back to 1969 to experience the sheer awe. In the 21st century, space travel goals aim much further away than the moon, but Countdown drives home how truly incredible the Apollo missions are in the history of mankind. --Jen Forbus, freelancer