Book: The Darkest Dark Author: Astronaut Chris Hadfield with Kate Fillion Illustrators: The Fan Brothers, Terry and Eric Publisher: Tundra Books (a division of Random House) Date: September 13, 2016 Genre: children's picture book; pre-school-3; ages 4-8 Pages: 48; hardcover Price: $17.99 My Rating: An excellent book to encourage children to dream big and conquer their fears
I was very happy to win from Library Thing a copy of The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield. This is my honest review.
The Darkest Dark is a non-fiction picture book written by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield – with Kate Fillion – about his dream of being an astronaut from the time he was a little boy.
Chris loved to pretend play that he was an astronaut. It was something he imagined most of the time and dreamed about at night.
It was summer vacation when the moon landing was shown on TV on July 20, 1969, so Chris and his family went to a neighbour’s cottage to watch it. Chris was amazed to see real astronauts walking on our moon. It was then that he realized that outer space is the darkest dark there is, and he knew he had a problem. He was afraid of the dark. How could he be an astronaut if he was afraid of the dark?
That night Chris did an experiment. Instead of waking his parents or leaving his nightlight on he sat in the dark. Before that day he was afraid of any dark shadows and he imagined aliens in his room, but that night something was different. Nothing around him had changed, but Chris had changed. He realized the beauty of the dark sky and he made the decision to overcome his fear so that he could be what he most wanted … an astronaut.
This is a wonderfully told story about Chris Hadfield‘s childhood dream and his fear, the moment his life changed, and that dreams can come true. It is an encouraging story for children – anyone, really – who have hopes and dreams but fear stands in the way.
The Darkest Dark has gorgeous illustrations by The Fan Brothers, Terry and Eric. The pictures are mostly dark, which suit the story very well.
You can find The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield on my BUY THE BOOK page.
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Book: You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photos from the International Space Station Author: Chris Hadfield Publisher: Random House Canada Date: October 14, 2014 Genre: Arts and Photography Pages: 208 Price: Hardcover: US $26; CDN $29.95; Kindle: US $13.35; CDN $15.99 My Rating: Sensational, stirring, amazing photography!
This is one of those books that easily qualifies as a coffee table book because you hate to hide it away on a book shelf. The photography in it is truly “out of this world.”
As you may recall, I am a fan of astronaut Chris Hadfield. He is among the very few famous people I greatly admire, so I was thrilled when my nephew gifted me his book, You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photos from the International Space Station. I love it! It is full of the magnificent photos Chris Hadfield took during his last mission – from December 2012 to May 2013 – on the International Space Station. His view of the world from way out there was captured in many amazing shots. Out of the approximately 45,000 photos he took, the ones in this book are some of his favourites, most never seen before.
The book is divided into chapters:
Each section gives us a perspective only attained from space combined with Chris Hadfield‘s wonderful way of explaining what we’re seeing. At the end of the book is a photo location map. “Every photo’s page number is pinned to the corresponding location on a world map.” (quoted from page 194) It is fun to go back and look at the photo that matches up with the number on the map.
You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photos from the International Space Station is such a beautiful book. It’s one I urge you to purchase, if only to get a better grasp of our mysterious and wondrous planet. You will be awed.
You can find You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photos from the International Space Station listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!
Just a quick post today…
On July 1 I posted my book review of Chris Hadfield’s book An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. I should have also mentioned again the post I had written about his talk about facing one’s fear; you can watch it here.
Today I am posting the trailer for his book, which I would have included yesterday had I thought to look for one. (Thanks to Erik for the heads-up about this.) It is so funny and I hope you will enjoy it. Click here to watch it.
Do book trailers increase your interest in a book? Do they help you make a decision about buying a book?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Book: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
Author: Chris Hadfield
Publisher: Random House Canada
Date: October 29, 2013
Genre: memoir; space science
Pages: 336, hardcoverSince July 1 is important for Canada, (HAPPY CANADA DAY TO MY FELLOW CANADIANS!), I have selected a fantastic book to review today.
While at the Credit Union one morning in early June, I noted their news board. On June 25 Chris Hadfield was coming to Truro, about two hours’ drive from where I live in Nova Scotia. Oh. My. Gosh! I excitedly told my sister who went online and obtained tickets for five of us to go hear him speak. I headed to the bookstore to buy his book — and one for my sister for her birthday. What a good decision. This well-written book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, is full of “AMAZING”, not to mention how I feel about Chris Hadfield – the Canadian astronaut who was commander of the International Space Station.
When Chris was nine years old he watched – on a neighbour’s TV on July 20, 1969 – the Apollo moon landing, and knew right then what he wanted to be when he grew up. From that point onward everything he did was to obtain his goal to be an astronaut, even though here in Canada there was not yet a space agency.
In An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth Chris Hadfield tells about his journey. After the Introduction appetizer, he has divided the book into three sections: Part 1 – Pre-Launch; Part 2 – Liftoff; Part 3 – Coming Down to Earth.
Part 1 – Pre-LaunchThis is an exciting, interesting, incredible adventure told in an easy-to-read way. Chris Hadfield‘s humility and humour shine through as he shares what he has learned and accomplished both on and off Earth. What he had to do to realize his dream is daunting. What he shares about life is sound and inspiring.
The paragraph that spoke to my heart is as follows:
If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you’re setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time. Personally, I’d rather feel good most of the time, so to me everything counts: the small moments, the medium ones, the successes that make the papers and also the ones that no one knows about but me. The challenge is avoiding being derailed by the big, shiny moments that turn other people’s heads. You have to figure out for yourself how to enjoy and celebrate them, and then move on. – Page 267, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth This book is thoroughly enjoyable. It is not only about travelling and living in Space, but also about his work as a fighter jet pilot when he lost several friends in flying accidents. In flowing conversational language he takes us all through the difficult journey that opened his way into NASA and eventually to commanding the space station where he conducted a record-setting number of scientific experiments. He also handled emergencies while in Space and became well-known for his activity on Twitter and his incredible photographs taken during his five-month stay on the space station he had helped build.
If you enjoy non-fiction, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield is such a good book to spend time absorbing. The information he provides is riveting. Even if you aren’t sure about the genre I recommend you give this book a try. It is so worth it.
A footnote: 
This image of Chris Hadfield is foggy because it was taken off the big screen in the community centre where he spoke. Chris is personable, interesting, funny, focused, well-spoken, humble, (good-looking – does that count?), Canadian … and I am so proud of him. I would have liked to tell him he’s an inspiration to me, but it wasn’t possible to get close enough with approximately 2800 people there. *alas!*
If you buy only one book this year, may I suggest it be An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. It will educate and inspire you.
You can find An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Do you have a dream? A fantastic plan? A seemingly impossible goal? but you can’t seem to move forward to achieve it? Could fear be holding you back?
Do you know who I mean by Chris Hadfield? He is the Canadian astronaut who became very well-known when he went into space in 2013. He sent images back to Earth and communicated with thousands of people through tweets from Space. You can read about him here. He is a man of many talents.
Here is a very interesting talk by Chris Hadfield, spoken in his funny and calm way. I’m sure you will enjoy it. He talks about mastering fear, and about when he went blind in space. Literally in space during a space walk!
So … what scares you?
Do you have a dream? What’s holding you back?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Posted in Miscellanea
Tagged Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, fear, going blind, space walk, TED talk, tweets from Space, what are you afraid of?
"The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more." - Patricia A. McKillip
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