What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Top Secret
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children's/ early reader. Space flight. Children construct a play rocket in their garden. Wizard transforms it into a real rocket. Read in 1950's/1960's. [s]
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Thanks for the suggestions but it wasn't either of those. It is such a long time ago I'm beginning to doubt my own memory!
About how many pages long was the book?
Someone on Stack Exchange was looking for a book that sounds like your book about 10 years ago and has more details of the story. Unfortunately they didn't seem to find the book, but the extra details may help (if this sounds like the same book to you). They wrote:"I remember a children's novel that I read in the late 1970s / early 1980s about three children travelling to the Moon. There were some illustrations; I think the colour scheme of those was black, white, orange, and purple.
Three children (an older boy, an older girl, and a younger girl, probably siblings? plus a dog?) are playing let's pretend in their back yard. They build a spaceship from cardboard boxes and a bucket. They intend to name the spaceship "Moonbeam", but the younger girl misspells it as "Moonbeem" when she paints the name.
Overnight, a wizard who needs a real spaceship transforms the children's pretend spaceship into a real one, but forgets to change it back when he has finished with it.
The children discover the now real spaceship the next morning, and decide to travel to the moon. The older boy is piloting the spaceship, and at first, he has difficulty controlling it and flies under London's Tower Bridge.
After they land on the Moon, the younger girl has difficulty putting her spacesuit on and needs help. On the surface of the moon, the children rescue a Martian who has suffered a spacesuit puncture.
On returning to Earth, they use Tower Bridge as a landmark to find their house, and the older girl reminds the older boy not to fly under it this time.
Adventure on the Moon? Can't find plot info, but there are pictures floating around online, and it is British.
I managed to find this brief description about Adventure on the Moon: "A story of a trip to the moon on a flying fish, written and illustrated by a 12 year old girl." I'll add it to the Goodreads description!
Thanks SBC. Yes, that extra description does chime with my memory. Not the book's colour scheme but the details of the rocket being made of cardboard boxes and a bucket, and the wizard transforming it because he needed a space ship. At least it is less likely that I've imagined it even if I don't have a title!
Thanks Rainbowheart but I don't think that's the one.
Hi SBC. The link to Stack has helped! It looks like my book has been identified! it is "Top Secret: The First Flight to the Moon" and has all the features that I recall. Thanks for your help. Now all I have to do is track down a copy.
Mod
Top secret: The first flight to the moon by David Young
Note: Google Books and Worldcat have entries for -- "Top Secret. The First Flight to the Moon" (1960) by David Herbert Young, illustrated by Eccles Williams. Publisher: Brockhamptom Press, Leicester, England. 86 pages, illustrations.
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/157...
Google Books also has a limited preview (you can search for keywords) and a cover image -- https://books.google.com/books?id=mTC... Quotes from the book:
- (page 1) "This is the story of the first flight to the Moon which was made by three children ..."
- "In the garden the children stopped for a moment to look up at the spaceship."
- "... house and saw the spaceship on the lawn. It was just what he wanted. He was really a wizard who badly needed a spaceship."
That's great, I'm glad you found your book :)
I've updated the GR record for Top Secret, including adding a cover, and discovered there is a sequel to Top Secret, where the children go underwater on a submarine. Thought I'd share here as it might be of interest :) Deep Secret
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Deep Secret (other topics)Top Secret: The First Flight to the Moon (other topics)
The Voyage of the Luna-1 (other topics)
Adventure on the Moon (other topics)
Rusty's Space Ship (other topics)
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My Mother took me to our local library regularly when I was a young child. At first all I did was look at the children's picture books, but I loved the ritual of borrowing a book from the library. The choosing, handing over my library ticket and getting the book stamped. The book I'm trying to find I remember as the first book I read that had more words than pictures! I recall being delighted that I could hear the words and see the pictures in my head. The book was illustrated but wasn't a picture book.
I'm afraid that my memory of it is vague as it is over 60 years since I read it. I must have read it in the late 50's or early 60's. The story concerns a group of children who construct a play rocket from household items in their garden. Over night a wizard transforms the play rocket into a real rocket and the next day the children embark on a space flight, I think to the moon but I'm not certain.