Astronaut Academy

Martin offers insight into astronaut training in this handbook featuring experiments, games, stickers, and press-out model rocket pieces. Readers “train” to work as an astronaut pilot, mission specialist, and payload specialist by completing challenges that include making a sling for an injured fellow astronaut, designing a space buggy, and calculating one’s body weight on various planets. Throughout, Martin gives enthusiastic descriptions of the work that astronauts do (“The excitement, the beauty of space and the feeling of freedom stay with the space walkers for the rest of their lives”), and Farley’s slightly retro illustrations harken to the early days of space flight. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)