Neil Armstrong by Thomas Streissguth is a nice, little biography about the first man to walk the moon. The book is short and to the point, providing information about Armstrong's life. The first page gives a quick overview of Armstrong and notes that he was the first man to walk on the moon. Each page thereafter is a different topic of Armstrong's life in sequential order. The layout follows a large photograph on the left page, with a title and short paragraph about that topic on the right page. At the bottom of each right-sided page is a bold print word with definition to give the child reader better understanding. The topics included Learning to Fly, Wartime Service, Test Pilot, NASA, Apollo 11, Apollo Team, Life After Apollo, and One Giant Leap. The book also includes a timeline of Armstrong's life at the end of the book, with a short glossary (not including words defined within the text), and a page with places to look for more information. The only inaccurate information in the book was “Life After Apollo” where the author talks about where Armstrong is now. I knew Armstrong had passed away recently, so we used the internet to check and see if he was in fact still on his farm in Ohio.
I read this book to my kindergarten boys after reading a great picture book titled, One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong by Don Brown. I knew Streissguth’s book was not as exciting or enticing as Brown’s, so I created a challenge for the boys as I read. I grouped the boys in pairs, giving each set a green flag and a red flag. After each page the pair would decide if the information I read was in the Brown’s as well, or if it was new information. The student would hold up the green flag for repeated information, and the red flag for new information. This was a great informal assessment for me, and an easy way for us to compare and contrast two books about the same topic. It also kept the boys engaged and focused during this read aloud. ( )