Adventure

MousetroNaut

Author: Astronaut Mark Kelly

Illustrator: C.F. Payne

Publisher Info: ‎ Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2012

Description: This book is loosely inspired by astronaut Mark Kelly's true experience of taking mice to space. A small mouse, Meteor, wants to be chosen to go on a great adventure to space! Even though he was the smallest he was chosen to go and even helped save the spaceship and its crew from trouble when a key falls through the cracks of the control panels and he is the only one that can get to it! Meteor is a hero! 

Evaluation: This book does a great job of using a real experience of taking mice to space, and turns that experience into a fictional story for kids. This book could inspire further research of animals in space, space exploration, etc. This the first book in a series and would hopefully encourage students to keep reading. 

Usage: This is an excellent resource for teaching students about the adventure genre. This book also has important social emotional learning lessons in it. Meteor's biggest insecurity, his size, ends up being something that was used to help save everyone.