Epic Fails: The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff by Erik Slader - ESSENTIAL

Epic Fails: The Race to Space Countdown to Liftoff by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson, 152 pages. NON-FICTION. Roaring Brook Press, 2018. $16

Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG; Violence: G.

BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ESSENTIAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

This book begins by going over some of the basic technology behind how rockets and spaceships work, but quickly moves on to the storied history of space exploration. A lot of the chapters chronicle the race between Russia and America to make it to space. The book includes details about several Apollo missions and the failures that were sometimes tragic.

I learned an embarrassing amount from this book. Not having grown up watching the space race unfold, but hearing bits a pieces through the years, it was good to put it all in order and organize the information in my brain. I was a little disappointed the book didn’t really follow through with the failures by explaining how they were used to learn something new, for example. One of the points that they kept emphasizing in the book was that they were working with such limited technology - often less computing power than a calculator. I thought that was so interesting and I think young readers will too.  

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher