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143rd out of 174 books
—
67 voters
T-Minus: The Race to the Moon
by
Jim Ottaviani (Goodreads Author),
Zander Cannon , Kevin Cannon (Goodreads Author)
Question:What happens when you take two global superpowers, dozens of daring pilots, thousands of engineers and scientists, and then point them at the night sky and say "Go!"
Answer:A SPACE RACE!
The whole world Followed the countdown to sending the first men to the moon. T-Minus: The Race to the Moon is the story of the people who made it happen, both in the rockets and beh
...morePaperback, 128 pages
Published
May 19th 2009
by Aladdin
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T Minus chronicles the twelve years before the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon. As the story proceeds, it counts down to the day of the lunar landing, reinforcing again and again a sense of the frenetic pace of the race to the Moon, and the urgency of the competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
It's a very factual account, a sort of a Classics Illustrated-style history of this early period in spaceflight, an educational story that uses the immediacy and drama of the comic book format...more
Summary: Starting in 1957, this non-fiction book tells the story of the space race between the United States and Russia as they each strove to be the first to make a more impressive advancement in space technology, which started with the Russians being the first to launch a satellite into space and ended with the US being the first to set foot on the moon. The book focuses on the men and women working behind the scenes rather than the astronauts themselves.
Comments: This is a perfect example of...more
Comments: This is a perfect example of...more
Way, way cool graphic novel.
I have an astonishing new appreciation of the vast efforts and nearly impossible tasks that took place to put humans into space and on the moon. The risks. The trials. The "Space Race" with the Russians. The innovation. How far we've come.
There's a huge amount of information in the book, but it's told with enough storyline as to be clear anyway. I'm blown away by the research Jim must have done to write this. And the graphics are an integral part of the story-telling,...more
I have an astonishing new appreciation of the vast efforts and nearly impossible tasks that took place to put humans into space and on the moon. The risks. The trials. The "Space Race" with the Russians. The innovation. How far we've come.
There's a huge amount of information in the book, but it's told with enough storyline as to be clear anyway. I'm blown away by the research Jim must have done to write this. And the graphics are an integral part of the story-telling,...more
I had high hopes for this but was disappointed. My 8 year old son is into comics and I thought this would be a great introduction to get him interested in space and the story of the space race.
I feel, however, that it's too disjointed and doesn't give a clear sense of what's going on. And that's from someone like me who's always had an interest in space and know a lot of the story already. This is particularly a problem in the first 20 or so pages - it jumps around in time a lot and doesn't give...more
I feel, however, that it's too disjointed and doesn't give a clear sense of what's going on. And that's from someone like me who's always had an interest in space and know a lot of the story already. This is particularly a problem in the first 20 or so pages - it jumps around in time a lot and doesn't give...more
Summary: This graphic novelization of the space race leading up to the moon landing, told from both the Russian and American space program's viewpoints, is tailor-made for the middle school social studies classroom.
Plot: The author takes the historical timelines of both the USSR and the USA's progress toward a moon landing and lays them out side by side. What a great idea! Too often American audiences are not given both sides of the space race. Sure, we got to the moon first, but the Soviets had...more
Plot: The author takes the historical timelines of both the USSR and the USA's progress toward a moon landing and lays them out side by side. What a great idea! Too often American audiences are not given both sides of the space race. Sure, we got to the moon first, but the Soviets had...more
An excellent read about the efforts that led to man landing on the moon, from Jules Verne's fictional propositions to the efforts between the Soviet Union and the U.S. to advance rocketry and manned space flights in a short period of time.
The interesting part is that the author doesn't consider the moon landing to be the climax; instead, he focuses on the excitement of the astronauts when they see the Earth as a big blue marble from lunar orbits. Factoids are sprinkled throughout the novel, incl...more
The interesting part is that the author doesn't consider the moon landing to be the climax; instead, he focuses on the excitement of the astronauts when they see the Earth as a big blue marble from lunar orbits. Factoids are sprinkled throughout the novel, incl...more
T-Minus is a brief, graphic novel history of the space race. And I did enjoy it, for the most part, but this is not the book to start with if you know little or nothing about the race to the moon.
It's obvious that a lot of research and love went into this book. There's some very detailed information here, and the writing is very enthusiastic. But it does seem to skip around quite a bit. I knew enough already to be able to follow it, but it might be confusing for somebody whose knowledge of spac...more
It's obvious that a lot of research and love went into this book. There's some very detailed information here, and the writing is very enthusiastic. But it does seem to skip around quite a bit. I knew enough already to be able to follow it, but it might be confusing for somebody whose knowledge of spac...more
I read this in conjunction with Brian Floca's picture book, 'Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.' Both books commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the giant step. I thought 'Moonshot' the better of the two. I love Floca's deft lines and keeping the story simple works better in these formats (picture book and comic book). There is almost too much info in 'T-minus,' which begins at T-minus 12 years, just prior to the Soviet Union launching Sputnik.
No, actually, even before, as it flashes back to...more
No, actually, even before, as it flashes back to...more
The story of the man landing on the moon and how Americans struggled to gain footing after Russia launched Sputnik. This graphic novel is a bit hard to read because of space jargon but the authors and illustrators do well to define some terms or visually represent others.
There's some humor and the black and white design concentrates the reader on the story. Though, the graphics are extremely complementary. It's simple and really stays focused on the story of the geniuses behind the design and m...more
There's some humor and the black and white design concentrates the reader on the story. Though, the graphics are extremely complementary. It's simple and really stays focused on the story of the geniuses behind the design and m...more
Very moving graphic novel that chronicles the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States, from the launch of Sputnik in 1957 to the landing on the moon by Apollo 11 in 1969. I liked the inclusion of the Soviet contribution to space exploration, (the Russians had the first satellite, the first man in space--Yuri Gagarin in 1961--as well as the first WOMAN in space--in 1963!--and the first space walk in 1965.) After 1965, the U.S. pulled away with the Gemini program and ended up ove...more
Jim Ottaviani is known for the non-fiction graphic novels that he has created and primarily self-published up until this point. Now that Aladdin, a division of Simon & Schuster, has released this amazing story of space flight illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon, I think he will receive some more recognition. Although I've read books like "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13," I was fascinated by this book because I think the illustrations helped enhance my understanding of the space pr...more
One of the things that has fascinated me since I can remember, even though I hate heights, is space travel. I remember catching the bug sometime in middle school and I’ve never given it up. So I was excited to see a graphic novel that deals with the space race of the late 60’s-70’s. And while you might think, judging from the title, that T-Minus: Race to the Moon would cover just the Apollo missions…but you’d be wrong. Instead Ottaviani and the Cannon’s bring us back to the very beginning of the...more
Possibly a good fit for space fanatics and science geeks, however this story felt flat to me. So much space was spent on the science and the competitiveness of the space race that I completely lost sight of the people in the story. I often couldn't tell them apart or remember their names. I'm sure some people wouldn't find that a problem but it was a deal breaker for me. I recommend for a very limited audience.
A factual depiction in graphic novel format of the race to the moon between the US and the USSR. The parallel advancements and setbacks between the two countries are clearly shown with side panels of launches and missions and both the astronauts and cosmonauts are touchingly portrayed. A great overview for interested students of all ages.
Mar 03, 2010
Jason Penckofer
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
graphicnovel,
space,
spacerace,
history,
ushistory,
russianhistory,
coldwar,
rockets,
spaceflight,
science,
engineering
Obviously very condensed to fit the major events into 124 pages. Enjoyable and engaging, and very well drawn over-all. There were a few faces that were not rendered well (individual faces in individual panels) but that was more something I noticed than a huge distraction. Nicely paced also.
I wanted to like this more than I did. Seems very well-researched, but so many people involved, depicted in relatively simple B&W sketches, got me scratching my head trying to keep them all straight. Also, I'm just not that interested in the space race, and this book did nothing to change that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ok, so the graphic design sometimes trumps readability, and it's occasionally hard to figure out the reading order, but apart from that it was terrific, and I learned quite a bit--and I'm already pretty well read in this topic ;-)
(Finished 2009-10-06 13:17 EDT)
(Finished 2009-10-06 13:17 EDT)
I guess I'm just not a science girl. I got a few pages into this and decided I'd seen enough and I knew the end ("One small step..."). There wasn't anything unique to hold my interest. But I'm sure for a sciencey kid, this would be great. Just not psyched enough to booktalk it.
I wrote up my complete thoughts, though not necessarily as a review on iFanboy.
Go and read: SCIENCE used for the Right Stuff: T-Minus, The Race to the Moon
Go and read: SCIENCE used for the Right Stuff: T-Minus, The Race to the Moon
At time it was a little hard to tell who was saying what because I had trouble discerning characters' faces in close up scenes. Otherwise, it was a great read for me! Reading this has helped me learn so much about space research in the 1950s and the race for a manned moon landing in the 1960s.
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this was a random pick-up. who knew a historically accurage graphic novel re-telling the space-race to the moon would be so much fun. i stayed up reading this one (even though we all knew the ending) bc i wanted to see what else happened along the way...
Excellent, but dense. I didn't follow everything that was going on, but the ending was very satisfying. It's only going to appeal to kids with a very specific interest in the subject. Though wouldn't it be wonderful if it were assigned reading in school?!
Well illustrated, but disjointed and can be a bit dull. Also, the lettering used for the Russian segments was irritating. Every time they used an И for N I cringed and often had to re-read the panel. But if you aren't trying to learn to read Cyrillic and you're a ten year old who is really into space, this would be the perfect for you.
This was a great graphic novel, it really helps bring some perspective to the space race, the origins of NASA, the successes of the Soviet Union, and that a lot more people were involved than the first men on the moon.
This was one of the most confusing things I have ever read. If the person reading this book had no back round knowledge about the moon race there is no way they could ever know what was going on.
This is a wonderful graphic novel about the space race chock full of fascinating facts about the space program. I learned quite a few things that I never knew and I'm a space program junkie.
Graphic novel about the Moon race between the U.S. and Russia. Very factual. Some of the vocabulary may be difficult for struggling Middle School readers.
If you are interested in the Space Race, this graphic novel is an interesting portrayal of the parallel struggles to outdo each other (U.S. and Russia).
As American scientists worked furiously to design spacecraft that would put a man on the moon (as Kennedy challenged them to do in 1961), Russian scientists were working just as hard. T-Minus chronicles the Space Race and the many successful and unsuccessful American and Russian missions that led up to the historical 1969 moon landing. The book is very detailed and will please any young scientists curious about the history of the space program. An author's note includes suggestions of resources...more
Great graphic condensation of the human and technical drama of the race to put a man on the Moon. The only odd omission is Ham, the space chimp!
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I've worked in news agencies and golf courses in the Chicago area, nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Japan, and libraries in Michigan. I still work as a librarian by day, but stay up late writing comics about scientists. When I'm not doing these things, I'm spraining my ankles and flattening my feet by running on trails. Or I'm reading. I read a lot.
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