Picture Books About Space Stories

Monday, July 01, 2019 BookBairn 8 Comments

We are inundated with wonderful space stories at the moment as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landings! Space offers us the opportunity to wonder so it's a fantastic premise for many great stories of adventure, exploration, science, creativity and ingenuity. And that's what we have gathered here for you in this post - six spectacular space adventures!

Suzy Orbit, Astronaut by Ruth Quayle & Jez Tuya

Suzy Orbit is a mighty girl astronaut, inventor and engineer! You know we love a Mighty Girl book and Suzy is a wonderful example of quietly but steadily saving the day. Suzy lives with her boss, Captain Gizmo in a space station on a dusty corner of the moon. Captain Gizmo is constantly receiving SOS messages from Earth about impending aliens and as the situation changes he keeps ordering new equipment to sort things out. But Suzy, quietly says she can build it, make it, create it. And with every order Captain Gizmo makes something isn't quite right. When the Aliens reach the Moon Space Station, it turns out they aren't invading but actually trying to warn Earth about a meteoroid storm. But do they have a top-of-the-range meteoroid blaster and can they get one in time? Suzy to the rescue! She's built the perfect ship with everything they could need! A wonderful story about aliens, Space and mighty girls but also about over-consumption, about creativity and ingenuity! This is such a fun-filled book too! The illustrations are bright and cheerful and I love the alien characters. But best of all through the changing illustrations you can see Suzy's ship taking shape. Lots of fun and perfect for Space fans!

Molly's Moon Mission by Duncan Beedie

Molly the moth (have you ever heard of a book with a moth as the main character - just one of the many reasons to love it!) has always been told that someone as small as her can never make it to the moon. Yearning for adventure, she helps her mother look after her siblings (larvae) during the day and trains hard for her space mission by night. And soon she is ready to blast off. But perhaps the moon is further than even Molly believed. First she gets as far as a lightbulb, but that's not the moon. Then she makes it as high as a street lamp, but that's not the moon. Then she gets confused but a lighthouse, that's not the moon either. Along the way she is belittled and made to feel too small for such a feat. Will she ever make it? And show everyone that size doesn't matter when you have a big dream? I think you can probably guess! With adorable illustrations and the underlying message of reaching for your dreams, this is a wonderfully heart-warming and gently encouraging story.

The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield & The Fan Brothers

Inspired by the childhood of real-life astronaut, Chris Hadfield, this new picture book is a beautiful depiction of a little boy fascinated by Space and longing to become an astronaut. As many children do! Young Chris in the story is a 'very important and very busy astronaut' so when his Dad says it's time for bed he says "sorry no can do!". An astronaut's work is never done. But when he does finally turn out the lights, Chris finds himself afraid of the scary aliens that lurk in the dark. And he sneaks into his parents bed. But he can't keep sleeping there - he needs to conquer his fear. When he watches in awe the Apollo 11 Moon Landing he realises that if he is to achieve his dream of visiting Space he must come to terms with the darkest dark. A wonderful depiction of childhood fears and dreams, with some truly spectacular illustrations, this picture book is a lovely one to read with young readers to commemorate the Moon Landings.

Field Trip to the Moon by John Hare & Jeanne Willis

A true Space adventure story, this fun and witty picture book is the story of a field trip to the Moon. A whole class of children on a yellow school bus inspired spaceship to the Moon (what kind of crazy teacher got that trip through risk assessment?!). For one student, her curiosity gets her separated from the rest of the class and she takes the opportunity to get her crayons out and look back to Earth and create a beautiful picture. But she falls asleep and finds that her whole class have returned to Earth. She's all alone on the Moon! Or is she? Find out what happens whne you reach out to those that are different from us and greet them with an open pack of crayons! And also does she get back to Earth or is she stranded on the Moon forever? A Very fun story with fabulous illustrations and a clever perspective and use of colour! (But seriously, what kind of teacher doesn't do approx 45,813,901 headcounts on a trip to the Moon?!)

Look Up by Nathan Bryon & Dapo Adeola

Rocket is a science-mad stargazing, astro-aspiring little chatterbox and she's determined to be the greatest astronaut space-traveller that ever lived. And she is always looking up. Unlike her brother, Jamal, who is always looking down into his phone. 'Did you know? Did you know? Did you know?', she's always trying to engage her older brother in her space chatter. So when her mum makes Jamal take Rocket to the park to spot the Phoenix Meteor Shower, she hopes he will look up at the stars with her. Such a fantastic celebration of curiosity and reminding us to look up, you can't help but be infected with Rocket's energy and passion! We certainly love her!

Goodnight Spaceman by Michelle Robinson & Nick East

This is one of the cutest bedtime story books (and makes me feel like we need to read the others in this 'Goodnight' series):

"It's time for bed, come on inside.

We'll keep the curtains opened wide

and watch the starlight sparkling bright.

Let's make a wish and say goodnight."

Two little boys say goodnight to a whole series of space things until their dreams blur reality and they climb aboard a rocket and head for the Space Station where their dad is working. And together they explore Space. It's so sweet and the illustrations are adorable! This is a perfect first Space story and wonderful for very little one's bedtimes.

I hope that has you wanting to blast off into a space adventure! And if it's got your little one excite about Space why not check out our blog post of the most fascinating Non-Fiction Space books that we've read?!

I've also added a new 'Books about Space' section to my Amazon shop!

Happy exploring!

Kim and the bairns x

Disclaimer: We were sent all these books free for review purposes by the publishers (except Goodnight Spaceman which we borrowed from the library). Words and opinions are my own. If you click on the title or image of the book you will be sent to amazon.co.uk using an affiliate link. This means that if you choose to purchase on amazon.co.uk, I will receive a small sum (around 20-70p per book) from amazon at no extra cost to you. I understand that you may not want to use an affiliate link, but if you like reading our blog please just think of it as a small tip for a tip-off to an awesome book. And know that your support means I can buy more books! For more information check out our 'For Our Readers' section.

8 comments:

BookBairn's Papa C3 July 2019 at 08:40
“To infinity and beyond”. Actually, to the Moon and back would do me. I still dream of being an astronaut but think I might be too late. Maybe BookBairn and the (not so) Wee Page Turner will get there. These books look great and truly inspiring.
Rebecca3 July 2019 at 17:14
Ah, four years ago when my daughter wanted to be an astronaut she'd have loved all these! She's not so interested in space now sadly, and her brother is yet to show an interest. We do have 'Molly's Moon Mission' which we love but all the others look great too, I especially like the sound of 'Look Up!' #readwithme
Brewtiful Fiction4 July 2019 at 06:39
I really like Goodnight Spaceman, I hadn't heard of any of the others until I read your post. Great choices #readwithme
Gwynne8 July 2019 at 17:25
I like that these books encourage girls and people of cour.