Juvenile fiction about space flight was one important way to build excitement about the space race. More importantly books about space flight both fiction and non-fiction were eligible to be bought using funds from the National Defense Education Act of 1958.
The Act's purpose, among other things, was to provide money to schools to update their libraries. This lead to publishers increasing their output of "relevant" space books.
Zimmerman, Naoma and Ruby Schuyler. Corky in orbit. Chicago: Reilly & Lee. 31 p. illus. 21 cm.
The fiction books all had very similar content. Similar to the "space monkey" books these would show children using the space flight technology.
Often you would also see children bringing their pets. Poodles and cats in space!
Letting children see themselves as astronauts was powerful at a psychological level. If they could imagine they could grow up to be astronauts they would be willing to learn the science needed to get there.
As a result of the space race, manned space flight had to be digested and presented to children. A standard presentation included space history.
Wernher von Braun was our second American space hero. Even though he had a long history in rocket research, the fact that he had once worked for our enemies was "tailored" in our celebration of the technological innovations he brought the United States.
Another part of the new mythology was telling children what their place was going to be in this new world. Here is the first page of a General Electric editorial (within this special section) telling children to study science and work hard.
There was almost always a series of questions about space flight such as "Why does a rocket work in space?" and "How much would you weigh on "X?".
You would also find many of the same authors writing explanations of aspects of space flight. Roy Gallant and Willy Ley were two of the more common ones.
Space was presented as the new frontier we were preparing to conquer. Like many other technological challenges of the time the time until we "won" was projected to be in the very near future. We would be figuring out manned flight and then move quickly on to a "city in the sky" ....................
"Instrument carrying satellite" (From Collier's Bonestell 'Baby satellite')
"Relief Ship" (From Disney RM-1 'Circumlunar ship')
"Fourth stage passenger unit" (From Disney MX-1 or XM-1)
These are nice because although they were used as covers for the magazine, they stand out without the text overlays as great inspirational paintings.
Compare this one to the original cover here:
