Review Detail

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ASTRONAUT is a picture book that encourages readers to cultivate the skills they might need to one day travel to outer space. This includes things like teamwork, listening, and managing stress - also good life skills in general. The book is told in rhyme and explains a bit about how each characteristic would be of benefit in space.

What I loved: For children who are interested in traveling to space, this book encourages many good habits and characteristics that are great both on Earth and in space. With plenty of fun illustrations, details, and colors, there is a lot to visually explore throughout. The story focuses on children on Earth, but it also includes some astronaut illustrations in key places. Rhyming text adds to the fun throughout.

What left me wanting more: While they are all great characteristics, some of them were explained in the space context more than others, and it would have been great to hear more about the astronaut side of things. Perhaps to aid in the rhymes, some of them seemed a bit more severe than others. For instance, honesty and truthfulness are tied into a child's "worth" (which seemed a bit heavy-handed). For that reason and due to the length of each page, this would be best for older picture book readers.

Final verdict: Overall, SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ASTRONAUT is a rhyming picture book that encourages good habits in children from a retired astronaut. This would work best for older picture book readers.