The Darkest Dark

Product Information

He attended the Ontario College of Art and Design where he studied illustration, sculpture and film. He was CAPCOM for 25 Shuttle launches and served as Director of NASA Operations in Star City, Russia from 2001-2003, Chief of Robotics at the Johnson Space Center in Houston from 2003-2006, and Chief of International Space Station Operations from 2006-2008. My daughter loves it and the extra fun for her is that parts of the book and pages glow in the dark. Most of them are nighttime double-page spreads, perfect for showing off the lush, dark shading, and moon, lights, and eyes that appear to really glow. Having discovered the work of Fan brothers in their gorgeous picture-book debut, The Night Gardener, I was very excited to see this second title, and I was not disappointed.

I liked the biographical information at the end, but the illustrative tone and wording of the story really let it down. His music video, a zero-gravity version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," has nearly 50 million views, and his TED talk on fear has been viewed over 10 million times. But I have to say, the words, dreams, and message are what I will remember the most from this story. After months of waiting, they can’t stand the anticipation anymore and rip open the box to turn it on. Young Chris is afraid of the dark until he sees the Eagle land on the moon and is moved by the beauty of space.Un niño que tenía miedo a la oscuridad pero quería ser astronauta, y que hay más oscuro que el universo? Brothers Eric Fan and Terry Fan worked together on the atmospheric illustrations in Chris Hadfield's The Darkest Dark . S. Navy test pilot of the year in 1991, Hadfield was selected by the Canadian Space Agency to be an astronaut in 1992. Chris Hadfield's books An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, You Are Here and The Darkest Dark have been bestsellers all around the world.

In terms of my teaching, I was inspired about where this would fit into a wide variety of areas of the curriculum, including science, PHSE and history.I loved everything about this book and although the style of illustrations weren't appealing to everyone, they still had amazing details that left my eyes scanning the pages back and forth way after I finished reading.

The Darkest Dark does a great job capturing the liveliness of a child's imagination, be it through acting out their aspirations or reacting to their fears. Together they also illustrated The Darkest Dark, written by Chris Hadfield and Kate Fillion, and The Antlered Ship, written by Dashka Slater.

Cris Hadfield, now a world-famous astronaut, was also afraid of what the dark would bring when the light in his room was flicked off. Born in Illinois, he now lives in Toronto, near the shores of Lake Ontario, which he likes to imagine is the sea.

The artwork here, done in pencil and colored digitally, was absolutely lovely, capturing both the beauty and the menace of the dark which so frightened the story's hero. For longer trips when we’re staying in one place for a while, the Cocoon Breeze is exactly what we need. His widely-praised debut picture book, The Night Gardener, was a collaboration with his brother Terry. Teaching children to face their fears; to not fear the dark for it holds much wonder and beauty; and to never give up on their dreams. This group of children had a real fascination with space and loved to hear the story of a real-life astronaut!

I received a copy from Penguin Random House Canada and Tundra Books in exchange for a honest review. This book is about the astronaut Chris Hadfield; including his childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut and what inspired him to be an astronaut (the moon landing). It functions as an exploration of a common childhood fear, and how young people might confront and overcome that fear, through reexamination and through expanding (or changing) one's perspective, but it is also a depiction of a momentous moment in human history, as seen through the eyes of one child.