Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon!

Yaccarino (Big Brother Mike) brings an effervescent perspective to moon exploration for the youngest astronaut wannabes in this breezy flight of fancy. A boy astronaut climbs into a bulging, oversized orange spacesuit and seats himself in front of a wide control console. Turning the book sideways shows the platform as last-minute procedures commence: ""Countdown counting.../ Excitement mounting.../ ...Lift off!/ Boosters blast!/ Moving fast./ Engines roaring./ Rocket soaring."" As the rocket travels upward, the text climbs diagonally across the page and diminishes in size as though getting farther away; elsewhere, chunky yellow or red type stands out brightly against starry dark-blue skies and the putty-gray lunar surface, with a quality of weightlessness that mimics the boy astronaut. On the way to the moon, he takes care to ""just avoid the asteroids"" and, once there, collects ""moon rocks in a box"" and witnesses a dramatic ""Earthrise"" before heading back home. The snappy rhyming narrative and cosmic double-page spreads cover the essentials from takeoff to splashdown, leaving the technical details for more experienced cosmonauts. Instead, Yaccarino creates a moon visit that budding scientists can use as a launch pad for their own imaginations. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)