He was selected by NASA as one of 35 out of 11,000 candidates, and operated the Challenger’s robotic arm that helped Bruce McCandless take an untethered spacewalk that became a historic event. In 1984, he also became the second African American to reach outer space. Most people remember Ron as one of the 7 astronauts who lost his life in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion, along with teacher Christa McAuliffe. Naden and illustrator Don Tate help readers experience the life and aspirations of Ron as a young boy in 1959 when segregation laws prohibited African Americans from borrowing books from the library. Ron’s mother, wife, and Gloria Wilson, administrative assistant to the director of library systems in Florence County, South Carolina helped retell this remarkable story. Ron’s Big Mission is a stand-alone, first edition, biographical fiction picture book based on interviews about a real incident that happened to famous African American physicist and astronaut, Ron McNair. Why can’t I check out books like everyone else?” said 9-year old Ron McNair as he attempted to check out books about flying at the Lake City Public Library.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |