Space Lego + Matching Kids Books

There are dozens of Lego sets based on space. There are space shuttles, space stations, lunar stations and more. Then there are all the Star Wars sets, but that’s a different blog post.

While space and the moon haven’t been a huge obsession in our home, I know some kids get totally into space as a phase or as a precursor to life in the science/engineering sector.

I’ve put together a list of some of our favourite space-related books (I’ve avoided aliens or supernatural sci-fi and stuck to astronauts, planets, and moons). The list begins with picture books for the littlies through to chapter books for middle-grade readers.

When You’re Going to the Moon, by Sasha Beekman and Vivienne To

This is a cosmically beautiful book, featuring an adventurous, determined, imaginative girl. The text is doesn’t rhyme, but has a very poetic flow to it and is so fun to read aloud. The illustrations are superb, especially when you consider this is set at night, in the dark. While my kids are now slightly too old for this book, it’s one I’m hanging on to.

My original review of this book is here.

Whatever Next!, by Jill Murphy

This is an excerpt from a blog post from2019:

“A little while ago two books popped into my head that I remember reading as a child but had never seen at the library. They were about a bear family. In one the father can’t sleep, so he moves to different locations in the house to try to move away from the noises, and in the other, the baby bear travels to the moon in a cardboard book with a colander on his head as a helmet. I couldn’t remember either the titles or the author, but 15 mins on Google and all was revealed. They are Peace At Last and Whatever Next and they are by Jill Murphy.

I searched on the library catalogue and was able to reserve Whatever Next but no luck on Peace At Last. I knew from previous experience that the library was unlikely to order it for me as it is quite old. So I went to an eBay seller who sells second-hand children’s books for very reasonable prices. I managed to get it delivered for under $6.

All that effort was well worth it, the kids loved both books and it was fantastic to be taken back to my childhood.”

Again my kids are getting away from picture books, but this will remain un-culled for a long time still.

Stellarphant, by James Foley

Stellarphant has been shortlisted for the upcoming CBCA Book of the Year awards in the Picture Book category, and I would be stoked if it won the top prize.

Stella is ambitious, perseverant and capable and she happens to want to be an astronaut. When she applies she is told something about her isn’t right and she is rejected. After working hard at overcoming that barrier, another, and then another is placed in her way. I don’t want to give too much away, because the ending is just masterful.

Ultimately children should realise that her wanting to be an astronaut is not the important part of the story. She could have wanted to be a doctor, an athlete, a baker, a business owner or anything else, so long as she wanted it enough to push through the naysayers and obstacles.

Moon Base Alpha series, by Stuart Gibbs

Jude went through a big Stuart Gibbs phase (that he is still waiting on some library reserves to complete), and this was his birthday present this year. A true middle-grade fiction set, this combines the thrills of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series with the laughs of David Walliams’ books.