Book Review: T-Minus: The Race to the Moon
The Horn Book Magazine
Sep 01, 2009
Jim Ottaviani T-Minus: The Race to the Moon; illus. by Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon 124 pp. Aladdin/Simon 5/09 isbn 978-1-4169-8682-9 $21.99 Paper edition isbn 978-1-4169-4960-2 $12.99
(Intermediate, Middle School)
In a year saturated with good astronaut books (Almost Astronauts; Mission Control, This Is Apollo; Moonshot) this one distinguishes itself not only with its graphic novel format but with its ambitious focus. It manages to highlight the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs while contrasting them with the parallel Russian achievements, creating a palpable sense of suspense about the race to the moon. It also manages to throw multiple settings, numerous characters, and quite a bit of technical information at the reader. That it does all of this in only 124 pages is a testament to the economy of the graphic novel, and indeed it's the black-and-white cartoons and the layout of the panels that create a sense of cohesion from such disparate elements. A publisher's note at the beginning labels this "historical fiction," but given the prominence of the historical record, "fictionalized history" is probably a more apt description. An author's note - cleverly incorporated into the narrative as a newspaper article just before the end - explains how it deviates from said historical record, and a bibliography recommends other books, graphic novels, websites, and DVDs.
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