Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow.

The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous.

5-8)Ī collection of parental wishes for a child. Of especial interest to budding spacekids is an introduction to such critical equipment as space suit and space toilet, the latter complete with labeled thigh restraints and a “vacuum for solids.” So that’s what they do! Rounding out the cheery package are lists of truly “Fascinating Facts” and resources and places to visit. The exhortatory text, peppered with exclamation points, clearly assumes a matching level of enthusiasm from its audience, which, if it wasn’t there to begin with, will surely rise to the occasion. Survival training and exercises in teamwork lead to a trip in the “Vomit Comet” and then to outer space. “ecide what kind of astronaut you want to be,” be it a pilot, scientist or satellite-repair technician, and then study a now-trademark bug-eyed character sits in front of an elaborate contraption featuring flasks and tubes, glancing through goggles at a stack of books: Basic Russian, Physics, Aeronautics….

“Welcome to astronaut school!” With this cheery salutation, McCarthy introduces eager readers to the specifics of astronaut training and what it’s like to go into space.

Astronaut handbook by meghan mccarthy