Book Review: Big Ideas: Rocket to the Moon! by Don Brown

Big Ideas That Changed the World: Rocket to the Moon! by Don Brown

After an extremely brief history of rocketry (starting with the discovery of gunpowder in China and getting to twentieth century in four pages), the book takes a quick look at the Cold War space race that inspired John F. Kennedy's interest in getting a man on the moon. Kennedy, at the beginning of the 1960s, challenged NASA and the country to get a man safely to the moon and back by the end of the decade. The book explains the various Apollo missions before Apollo XI, which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon.

The book is faithful to the history while adding a comic narrator who has little to do with the story other than providing occasional jokes. The format is a pale imitation of the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales books--the humor is weak and he doesn't provide any interesting insights into the situation. The book describes the other missions. I was amazed at how much of the moon got explored. The book does have a bibliography for further reading.

Slightly recommended.