Bonnie's Rocket

July 15, 2022
A young Asian American girl engineers a rocket launch while her father does the same. It's 1968, and Bonnie's father is a NASA engineer working on the Apollo 11 mission. It's a job that requires him to be far from home for 10 months. While Baba is hundreds of miles away working on launching astronauts to the moon, Bonnie has a task of her own: "designing a magnificent rocket ship." As she works on her project--setbacks and breakthroughs included--letters from Baba offer encouragement. And like Baba's team of engineers, Bonnie's diverse group of friends and her sibling, Mei Mei, are a strong, collaborative crew. With them by her side, Bonnie works through the various stages--the Design, the Build, the Test, the Analysis--before a successful launch the day before the Apollo 11 lifts off. Lee accessibly introduces scientific principles as Bonnie toils through the construction of her rocket. Readers follow along as she troubleshoots and gets inspired. Chau's inviting illustrations depict Bonnie's methodology, using her notebook as the backdrop for many spreads. Paired with the parallel narrative of an engineer father away working on a space mission, the moments of distance, encouragement, and shared interest provide additional emotional resonance. In an author's note, Lee discusses drawing inspiration from her grandfather, who was born in Guangzhou, China, and immigrated to the United States, where he worked with NASA and the Apollo space program. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An engaging father-daughter STEAM story full of support and scientific inquiry. (activity) (Picture book. 4-8)

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October 24, 2022
Awaiting the return of her father, Baba, an engineer for NASA’s Apollo 11 space program, a child endeavors to make a functional toy rocket in this teachable story. With the help of friends portrayed with varying skin tones, Bonnie, who cues as Asian American, learns about persistence, trying to launch her ship first with a slingshot, and later with a volcano-like blast, until an attempt proves successful. Letters from Baba encourage with affirming insights (“Remember that the engineering process can take a while”), while Lee offers a compelling portrait of design thinking through a four-step process: design, build, test, analyze, and repeat. Chau’s watercolor and digital illustrations showcase both the efforts and the emotions of the would-be engineers. Instructions for making a toy rocket and an author’s note detailing the book’s familial inspirations conclude. Ages 4–7.