Moon Tree: The Story of One Extraordinary Tree: The Story of One Extraordinary Tree

by Carolyn Bennett Fraiser, Simona Mulazzani (Illustrator)

Overview

A little girl finds a sycamore tree named a “moon tree” and wonders why. When no one knows, her third-grade class is determined to find the answer. Their quest leads them to NASA, an extraordinary boy who grew up to be an astronaut, a broken metal container, and a story more fascinating than they could have ever imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478875970
Publisher:	Reycraft Books
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.38(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 12 Years

About the Author

Simona Mulazzani was born in Milan, Italy, but now lives and works in the town of Pesaro. After art school, she studied scientific illustration and began working on packaging design, TV commercial, and animation. She is an adored children’s book artist in Italy and has illustrated over 100 books internationally. In 2005 and 2013 she received a Silver Medal from the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators, in 2007 and 2011 a White Ravens award, and in 2016 the Andersen Prize as Best Illustrator (the most important Italian children’s book prize). Her works have been exhibited in both in Italy and abroad.

Editorial Reviews

2022-09-14
A tribute to an ecological legacy of the early space program.

Fraiser tells the tale simply, then again in more detail in an afterword: “One ordinary boy,” she writes, grew up to be an astronaut and took a parcel of tree seeds to the moon in honor of the smokejumpers he had worked with earlier in his career. Later, the 500 or so seeds were brought back to Earth, planted in pots, distributed around the country—and forgotten, even at NASA, until 20 years later an “ordinary girl” in Indiana wondering why a sycamore was dubbed a “moon tree” sparked a third grade class to investigate. The author appends a partial list of moon tree locations and invites readers to “see if there is a moon tree near you!” Along with views of our planet and its satellite against starry backdrops, Mulazzani fills the branches of the mature tree with stars and other astronomical wonders. The White astronaut, whose name was Stuart Roosa, poses in a final scene similarly bedecked in commemoration of the ordinary boy who took “some ordinary seeds / on one extraordinary journey.” Human figures elsewhere in the art, including the unnamed “girl,” are small but seem to be depicted with some variation in skin color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A small but “extraordinary” episode, well worth the belated notice. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews