John Glenn: Young Astronaut

by Michael Burgan, Robert Brown (Illustrator)

Dear Reader:
The Childhood of Famous Americans series, sixty-five years old in 1997, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person's development. History is fleshed out with fictionalized details, and conversations have been added to make the stories come alive to today's reader, but every reasonable effort has been made to make the stories consistent with the events, ethics, and character of their subjects.
These books reaffirm the importance of our American heritage. We hope you learn to love the heroes and heroines who helped shape this great country. And by doing so, we hope you also develop a lasting love for the nation that gave them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. It will do the same for you.
Happy Reading!
The Editors

Genres: History, Biography

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Kathryn]

Thoroughly enjoyable. Like most of the COFA books, it has very little information on source material or suggestions for further reading, which makes me frown. However, the story itself is very engaging and my son was eager for me to read chapter after chapter. It actually ended up being a great choice to read during shelter-in-place as young John was once quarantined during an outbreak at his school (he was not even allowed to go outside but enjoyed all the free time building model airplanes) and his childhood also spans the Great Depression when so many folks were experiencing "hard times." Most of the book deals with John's interest in aviation since there were no astronauts when he was young. A few of the war chapters were a bit intense for my newly seven-year-old so I did some skipping here and there to get ahead to the NASA part of his career. Also focuses on Glenn's interest in public service and his political aspirations. One of the better COFA, IMO.

[Jamie]

3.5! A fine book/series to give a younger kid to read on their own, but after awhile, I realized it didn’t make for the best read-aloud, at least in our season of life. I do know a lot more about John Glenn now, and I do love kids learning to enjoy biographies!

[GheenGirls]

Turtle: great! Return to library.

[Nathaniel]

I liked it. Often he would take his car up on a bridge and he would drive as fast as he could and get some air, but after awhile another car was coming up the other side and they almost crashed. Luckily the other car managed to get out of the way and the bridge was very narrow.

[Alicia]

11-year-old Josh wants to be an aeronautical engineer someday, so he loved this book. He is counting down until he's old enough to get his pilot's license.

[Charlotte]

I liked how John Glenn knew what he wanted and he went after it. He also had some depth in his life and I like that.

[Caleb]

I liked it

[Monica]

Another read aloud book with the kids.