Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls (1966)
A bit of fun (and obscure) children's space fiction today from Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls (1966). As you can tell I like graphic design a great deal and this book is a charming fantasy about space flight. The chief graphically interesting story "Space Man Sam" is about a mouse that sneaks aboard the first space flight to Mars.
Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls. Illustrations by Vasco Americana. London: Rylee Ltd., 1966.(45 pp.)
I like see the various space books he is studying and his own scientific explorations. One of my viewers noted the title of the book is in Italian so probably this was a translation of an Italian children's book.
At this point he decides he must sneak aboard the space ship.
He reminds me of "Mighty Mouse" with his heroic pose here.
Mars seems a bit closer to earth (check the sky) than I thought but maybe Sam is distracted by the enthusiastic Martians who take him on a tour. I especially like this "flying sofa" as a way to see the sights.
Getting a copy of a recent Martian newspaper is the best way that Sam can bring back evidence of his trip to the earth scientists.
The book has one other space related story with less exciting illustrations:
The fact that Sam is studying "fisica" suggests this is a translation of an Italian story. The artist's name "Vasco Americana" is rather suspect, too. I wonder where Sam got his nifty space suit.
ReplyDeleteThank you...My favorite childhood book, read when I was three. I remember every illustration Might go some way to explain why I spent the last 30 years teaching Physics. as an aside one o my former students landed an experiment on Mars and is still working on the next Mars project Shows just how important children's books and illustrations are.
ReplyDeleteStuart R (Bacup UK)