Grandpa Takes Me to the Moon

by Timothy R. Gaffney, Barry Root (Illustrator)

Many years have passed since Grandpa rockete d to the moon but his grandchild still loves to hear the bed time story in which the 2 of them blast off together. '

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Space

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 1996

About the author

Timothy R. Gaffney was born in Dayton in 1951 and has lived in the Miami Valley most of his life. After earning a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in Columbus in 1974, he worked for the Piqua Daily Call, the Kettering-Oakwood Times and the Dayton Daily News, where he took early retirement at the end of 2006. Since then he has held positions as assistant media relations director for Wright State University and director of communications for the National Aviation Heritage Area. He is a former volunteer trustee for the United States Air and Trade Show Inc., the nonprofit producer of the Dayton Air Show. He lives in Miamisburg, Ohio, with his wife, Jean. They have four grown children, two grandchildren and two dogs.

Reviews

[Smita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and engaging story about traveling to the moon

[Kaitlyn Petkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story tells the tale of a young boy and his grandfather's stories of when he traveled to space. Every time his grandfather comes over, the boy has him retell the tales of his lunar adventures. The boy imagines himself joining his grandpa on the moon.

This book has beautiful artwork. There is a lot of detail in the faces showing the emotion better than words can describe. The story accurately describes the adventures of the men on the Apollo mission. I felt this was very interesting, but story wise there was no conflict. When I grabbed this book I was not expecting to read more of an informational story, but I did enjoy the way the story was told. Instead of just stating facts, the child "lives" though his grandfather's stories. This reminds me of when I was young and would love listening to my grandma's stories about her being in the navy. I would ask her to tell me about them every time I saw her when I was young.

[Theresa Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our history is one of those most important things we have. That is why the author chose to create a story that tells about the moon landings for children, so that we can preserve that history. In this adventure, the grandfather shares the story with his grandson as if they were going together like a bedtime story. Just as simple and enjoyable as the text are the illustrations that show accurate depictions of the history.

From the description of the space flight, to the lunar landing, to the rover, this story covers many different aspects of moon landings in simple language for children, and boys will love sharing the story with their fathers or grandfathers.

[Allie Tully · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Grandpa Takes Me to the Moon" is a useful book to incorporate into a science unit or a social studies unit on the space race. It is a fiction story that contains content and detail about traveling to the moon and aspects of being an astronaut. Young learners could relate to the main character that has a grandfather that traveled to the moon and grasp the time period on which these events took place in American history. This book shared a good balance of imagination and realistic information.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on the original Apollo landing. This story is retold as a bedtime story from a Grandpa that was one of the astronauts. Beautiful illustrations and history. This was the story we left the kids with in our summer reading promotion, and the kids were always entranced.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good children's book for learning about the moon

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice watercolor and gouache paintings; very good story in which a young boy imagines he is going to the moon with his astronaut grandfather.