The Sea of Tranquillity

Rating:
Summary: One boy's romance with space and space travel
Review: Beautiful picture book, illustrations are mystical and romantic. Actually this is the most romantic and beautiful portrayal of space travel that I have ever seen. Rather than focusing on science and technology this is all about a boy's romance with space. The illustrator has done a wonderful job taking what is usually dark and cold looking (moon's surface, etc.) and making them look beautiful, haunting, and romantic. A man looks back on his boyhood fascination with all things space and recalls the night he watched the first moonwalk on television. We learn of the different ways he would daydream of space, making a scrapbook of space photos, etc. Then he watches the moonwalk on TV in the middle of the night and images of the moonwalk are shown. Later, while sleeping, he has a dream that he was with the astronauts on the moonwalk. It ends with more romantic musings from the now-adult man about what it is like on the moon and how the footprints those astronauts made will remain there for millions of years. A beautiful story. The point of the story is just about the boy's romantic notions of space flight and space in general. It is not heavier than that, there are no lessons to be learned, etc. but a nice story for any child who loves space and dreams of what space travel would be like.