Fact Friday: How We Got to the Moon by John Rocco

Image: Penguin Random House

How We Got to the Moon: the people, technology, and daring feats of science behind humanity's greatest adventure written and illustrated by John Rocco. 264 p. Crown Books for Young Readers, October, 2020. 9780525647416. (Review of finished copy borrowed from public library.)

Happy Friday! Fact Friday features How We Got to the Moon: the people, technology, and daring feats of science behind humanity's greatest adventure written and illustrated by John Rocco. Now, if you are a Percy Jackson fan, you know Mr. Rocco's work, as he has illustrated all the covers for that series and its spin-offs.

This hefty, oversized, gorgeous volume begins in October of 1957, when people all over the world learned that Russia had launched a satellite called Sputnik. Panic ensued. Were we being spied upon? Could a satellite drop an atomic bomb? The U.S. scrambled to catch up. 

The subtitle really says it all. That's how wide-ranging the text is. Each spread brims with text that explains the history, science, engineering and gives biographical background on some of the many thousands of individuals who worked tirelessly to put a man on the moon. Illustrations vie with the text on each page and just beg to be pored over. There are technical drawings, cutaways, and portraits. This is a book that ought to be read more than once. There's just too much to take in. The back matter is superb. It gives the reader a glimpse into all the research Mr. Rocco did for both the writing and the art, source notes, sources, and suggestions for further reading.

Fact hounds and space geeks will adore this book, but so will the average curious reader. How We Got to the Moon was long-listed for the National Book Award and is a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. Who knows what other awards it might garner next Monday? A Sibert? A Newbery? This book needs to be in every library's collection.