Astronaut Hayley's Brave Adventure

by Hayley Arceneaux, Lucie Bee (Illustrator)

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An imaginative, inspiring, and beautifully illustrated picture book from the youngest American to ever orbit the earth—cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux—who learned that if we are willing to be scared and brave at the same time, extraordinary things are possible.

A fantastic fictional space story inspired by the author's real-life experiences, Astronaut Hayley’s Brave Adventure is the perfect book for young readers who have big dreams and even bigger hearts.

Like every child, Hayley has to learn to be brave in ordinary ways, like facing the first day of school or trying a new sport. But when Hayley gets sick—really sick—she has to learn to be brave in not-so-ordinary ways. When Hayley is invited to become an astronaut and travel to outer space, she knows she is up for the challenge. But she'll need all her courage to handle what's in store!

Astronaut Hayley’s Brave Adventure will inspire children everywhere to reach for the stars, to aspire for the impossible, and to seek new friends and new adventures wherever they are!

The perfect choice for parents looking for:

• Books about space
• Inspiring story books
• Role model books for girls and boys

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593443910
Publisher:	PRH Christian Publishing
Publication date:	02/18/2025
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Hayley Arceneaux is a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a career she committed to after surviving pediatric bone cancer. She served as an ambassador for the hospital when she joined the first all-civilian orbital space mission, Inspiration4, in 2021. At age twenty-nine, she became the youngest American to orbit the earth, the first astronaut with a prosthetic body part, and the first pediatric cancer survivor to go to space. She chronicled her experiences in her memoir, Wild Ride. Originally from Louisiana, she now lives in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Lucie Bee is a children’s book illustrator, a job she dreamed of when she was eight years old. She holds a degree in Illustration from the University of Lincoln and lives and works in Yorkshire, England. Her work is inspired by nature, nostalgia, and a huge helping of magic. When she isn’t in her home studio, she may be found sipping lattes in cozy coffee shops, jogging through leafy suburbs, or exploring the Peak District with her husband and two children.

Read an Excerpt

Astronaut Hayley zipped up her space suit
and grabbed her helmet. She felt strong
and brave—like she could do anything!

But Hayley hadn’t always been an astronaut.
And she hadn’t always felt brave.

Not so very long ago, Hayley was a
regular kid who played fetch with
her dog and tag with her brother.

She baked cookies with her mom and
karate-kicked boards with her dad.

Back then, Hayley learned
to face her fears in ordinary,
everyday ways.

Editorial Reviews

2024-11-09
A plucky child becomes a space traveler.

Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all-civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoirWild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle-grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. Told in the third person, the narrative emphasizes the bravery she summoned as she coped with a cancer that left her with a prosthetic leg bone and knee (hinted at with an incision line in one illustration) and went on to become a space traveler. Curiously, Hayley and her astronaut colleagues are portrayed as children. They play with a “stuffed toy alien,” and in an imagined episode, Hayley ventures outside the spacecraft to perform a repair. Accompanied by softly hued illustrations with character designs that recall Precious Moments figurines, the narrative emphasizes familiar details of space travel that will appeal to children; both their bodies and their food float in zero gravity. The mission splashes down safely, and Hayley rushes to hug her mom. Though Arceneaux was the youngest astronaut to have orbited the Earth, she was an adult when she did so. The odd choice to depict her as a child reduces her compelling story to a fantasy. Arceneaux is white; other characters are diverse.

Sweet but misleading.(Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews