When I Go to the Moon (1961)

An incredibly beautiful children's book that celebrates the idea of what it would be like to stand on the Moon.  People first landed on the Moon July 20, 1969,  20:17:40 UTC, 46 years ago today.

I am haunted by my own dreams as a child of flying to the Moon and imagining what it would be like to stare back at the Earth. In fact I think that is one of the archetypal images in all these books I have shared with you, when the author/artist shows a child on the Moon looking back "home." We have a new perspective on where we stand in the Universe and can see where we live in total for the first time.

Lewis, Claudia. Illustrated by Weisgard, Leonard. When I Go to the Moon. New York: Macmillan Co. (28 p.) 26 cm. Cloth, DJ.

"When I go to the Moon, I'll let the scientists explore the craters."

"What I want to see is the earth. I want to look back--- No, not back, but up--- At that great lighted ball, This world, that will float there among the old stars, like a newly created moon."

"Imagine the size of it! Four times larger than the moon we know. And eighty times more bright, lighting the moonscape with white earthlight. A giant globe in the sky, slowly turning as a globe turns, with North and South America and Africa there before my eye. Why, the whole thing will seem like a mistake!"

"Imagine the colors! I'll see them if I look through telescopes and filters---Deserts dusty red, green fields and dark green patches that are forest trees. The North Pole white with ice and flash! the sunlight striking the seas. The earth will loook like a giant unimaginable Christmas tree ornament!"

"I'll know eyes are watching--back and forth we'll stare across the cosmic miles, The electric seas of space, where rockets are in flight---"

"Goodnight, Earth, I''ll say. Then I'll lie down in my spaceman's bed. the night will be as still as stone."

"The earth is near. Goodnight I'll say. All's well here, is all well there?"

Happy Moonday to you all! Keep dreaming of our potential and pass those dreams on to others.