Astronaut's Inspiring Story of Achieving His Dream Career in New Edition for Young Readers

America will be launching from its own launchpad for the first time in many years this coming Wednesday with the launch of a rocket built by the company Spacex. Two astronauts will be on their way to the space station. This new read for young readers is a great choice for summer reading.

Young readers will gain life lessons from astronaut Mike Massimino's new release of his autobiography that has been adapted for children ages 9-12. SpaceMan: The True Story of a Young Boy's Journey to Becoming an Astronaut has lessons for children in perseverance, teamwork, and initiative.

Mike Massimino had dreams of becoming an astronaut from the age of seven. He watched Apollo 11's landing on the moon and he was hooked. Becoming an astronaut would be his dream career. Mike grew up in Long Island, New York, in a neighborhood that seemed very far away from any chance of achieveing his dream. There would certainly be challenges ahead. He came from a working-class family and his family seldom left the neighborhood. He had an interest in math, science, and space exploration that continued throughout elementary and high school. He was brought up to believe that education could make things possible. His educational pursuits took him to Columbia University and finally to MIT. He was finally encouraged to apply at NASA for an astronaut training class. NASA turned him down three times. He was finally accepted into a class and had the opportunity to meet his hero Neil Armstrong when Armstrong spoke to his class. Massimino took his first trip to space on March 1, 2002. His dream career had been achieved.

Massimino writes with very complete details of his work as an astronaut. He describes the inside of a spacecraft. He describes the adventure of being weightless. He also describes many tools that he used with work inside the spacecraft. His favorite trip was his trip to the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino was also the first astronaut to "tweet" from space. His career counted two trips to space.

Mike writes in his introduction to readers that "if I can realize my little-kid dream, you can realize yours too."

Spaceman: The True Story of a Young Boy's Journey to becoming an Astronaut was published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House Children's Books. It is recommended for ages 9-12, but adults will also enjoy this adventure. It has an ISBN of 9780593120866.

Science teachers will want to add Mike Massimino's autobiography Spaceman: The True Story of a Young Boy's Journey to Becoming an Astronaut to their classroom library. Teachers may be teaching remotely for the coming school year, and they need interesting reading assignments for their students. The study of space for students is a continuing interest and many learning projects can be completed from home after reading this inspiring story.

*Assign astronaut Mike Massimino's autobiography as part of the reading list for the coming year.

*Assign creative writing projects for students to write about their thoughts as they read his story. How are they inspired by his perserverance after being rejected several times through his career?

*Include a variety of additional information for students about America's space program.

*Include a learning activity about the Hubble telescope.

*Assign a creative writing project for students to imagine that they become an astronaut. What will they experience?

*Assign a creative writing project for students to write a description of their favorite account by Massimino of his variety of skills used as an astronaut.

*Assign a project for students to create a timeline of Massimino's career.

*Assign a research project for students to learn about the astronauts who were heroes of Massimino.

*Introduce the kind of food that astronauts take with them into space. Dried foods are readily available for students to try.