Papa Put a Man on the Moon

by Kristy Dempsey, Sarah Green (Illustrator)

Overview

In time for the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, this father-daughter story celebrates a small community's big contribution to one of America's greatest accomplishments.

Marthanne and her father sit side by side, looking out over their mill village as the moon glows in the sky. Marthanne hopes that one day, man will walk on the moon, and she knows her father is helping America accomplish this mission: The fabric he weaves forms one layer in the astronauts' spacesuits. Papa insists he's only making a living, but Marthanne knows his work is part of history, and she's proud. She tries to be patient, but she can't stop imagining the moon mission: the astronauts tumbling through space, the fabric her papa made traveling all the way up into the sky. When the astronauts blast off and Neil Armstrong finally takes his first steps on the moon, Marthanne watches in wonder. She knows her papa put a man on the moon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525554493
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kristy Dempsey is the author of eight picture books, including Me with You, Surfer Chick, Superhero Instruction Manual, and A Dance Like Starlight, which was named a JLG selection, ALA Notable Book, Bank Street Best of 2015, CCBC 2015 Choice, and the winner of the 2015 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text. Since 1998, Kristy has lived in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, with her husband and three children, where she works as a middle school and high school English teacher.

Sarah Green is the illustrator of Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression and Elizabeth Warren: Nevertheless, She Persisted (Summer 2018). She studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving back to her hometown of San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

04/08/2019

A child with long blonde hair explains that the fabric her father weaves at the village mill “is one layer in the spacesuit our astronauts wear.” Her father is humble, insisting that he is only “proud to make a living.” Dempsey captures the girl’s palpable excitement as the Apollo 11 mission approaches: “Watching the news,/ I can practically feel/ the rumble of engines.” Green illustrates in unguarded, jewel-toned images that bring the story warmth and intimacy. In an author’s note, Dempsey offers historical context, explaining that the federal government hired factories to create the Apollo mission equipment and materials—and that the author’s own relatives made the fiberglass “Beta cloth” that was used in spacesuits. Through a child’s perspective, Dempsey and Green brightly convey how ordinary Americans became part of history. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Papa Put a Man on the Moon

“Green illustrates in unguarded, jewel-toned images that bring the story warmth and intimacy. . . . Through a child’s perspective, Dempsey and Green brightly convey how ordinary Americans became part of history.” —Publishers Weekly

"A highly recommended purchase for any library, this book has a unique perspective on how every little piece works together to accomplish something great." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2019

PreS-Gr 3—This picture book is a stunning tribute to members of the author's own family who worked in a textile mill that produced fabric for the Apollo 11 space suits. Told from the perspective of Marthanne, the daughter of a textile worker, this story seamlessly weaves together the excitement of the moon landing with the tale of the people who contributed to the historical event. In contrast to Marthanne's elevated sense of pride, her father's humility about his important role in the launch reflects the American spirit of the time period. With its detailed and bold illustrations, this book is sure to appeal to a wide audience, adults included. VERDICT A highly recommended purchase for any library, this book has a unique perspective on how every little piece works together to accomplish something great.—Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh

School Library Journal

2019-02-06

A child's tribute to one of the thousands of blue-collar workers who have made the space program possible.

Though Dempsey looks back on family history in highlighting the small but significant contribution that her father and other workers in a South Carolina textile factory made by manufacturing one layer of spacesuit material, she holds off describing the technological feat or even placing it in historical context until her afterword. Instead, in all that comes before she mainly focuses on the admiration any child might feel for a hardworking dad. Thus, despite a climactic gathering before the TV to watch Walter Cronkite before Green cuts away to Neil Armstrong's swaddled figure, there are no narrative details that bring either the times or specifics of work in the factory itself to life. When the child asks whether her father is proud to be part of a great endeavor he answers, "Only proud to make a living, Marthanne. Only proud to make a living." Aside from dressing father and daughter in period clothing (when the latter isn't visualizing herself floating in space), Green doesn't do much to pick up the slack—one glimpse inside a factory furnished with vaguely drawn hand looms, an illegibly tiny labeled sketch of a spacesuit, and, later, a stack of old-time TVs as a tailpiece notwithstanding. Marthanne and her family are white; some group scenes include black background characters.

One of a rush of commemorations of Apollo 11's semicentennial, but this is more about father-daughter intimacy than "One small step…." (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews