A House in Space (1974)

It is harder and harder to find English language children's books that I have not shared before.  I still have a number stored to go through but in the meantime I keep finding new Russian ones. This one is a beauty since it highlights the Russian space shuttle.

House in space. M. Rebrov. Illustrated by Penny Yu.  28 pp. 1974 Pochemuchkiny Books series.

According to the seller: "The story of how Olga with her mother flew to visit "Papa", who runs the installer space on the space station."

 Note that the illustrations of the launch vehicle don't seem to show a shuttle attached :)

 I am using this one above as my current screensaver.

Really nice illustrations of a visit to a space station.

Boy's Life December 1960

So a nostalgic bit of ephemera from the early 1960s.  Boy's Life magazine was a regular with any boy who was a Cub or Boy Scout. It was an automatic subscription with your annual membership fee but it was also pretty interesting. So here are two space related features from the December 1960 issue.

The first is how merit badges may lead to a career in space flight:

No irony intended, it is facinating how "the race for the conquest of space" was promoted to children.

The second is a regular featured comic strip in Boy's Life called "Space Conquerers!"  This was a memorable feature which depicted a scientific bend to its fictional tales of space exploration. In this one they are attempting to explore Mercury with a remote probe.

This blog page give more information about the strip and links to many of the strips online. http://planettom.livejournal.com/294248.html

By Rocket to the Moon: Cleveland (1933-1938)

So this is a slight change of pace. I ran across this pamphlet/comic book about The Cleveland Rocket Society, that was active in the 1930s. 

Published by the Western Reserve Historical Society to support one of their exhibits, it outlines the early efforts of these rocket "amateurs." (I have not found out when the exhibit was.)

"Founded in May 1867, the Western Reserve Historical Society is Cleveland’s oldest existing cultural institution. It was established as the historical branch of the Cleveland Library Association which dated from 1848. It now concentrates on the history of Northeast Ohio."[5]

The CLEVELAND ROCKET SOCIETY, formed ca. 1933, was an organization of area residents who studied the possibilities of liquid-propelled rocket flight and conducted experiments in that field. 

By the Summer of 1934 CRS membership amounted to 50. A Technical Staff had been 
formed that was divided into four independent departments: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical 
Engineering, Radio Engineering, and Theoretical Engineering. 

Rams Un Rums (1963)

Rams Un Rums is a 1963 Russian children's book. This copy in Latvian is from 1965. I love the graphic style and bright colors.

Rams Un Rums. S. Saharnovs. Izdevnieciba: Liesma. 47 p. 26 cm. 1965.

Russian version is: Ram i Rum. S Sakharnov. Leningrad : Detgiz, 1963. 44 p. 1963

It is a fictional story about two robots (Rams and Rums) who explore different kinds of transportation.  It has a very nice section about space exploration and an index at the end of current and future space efforts.

After they are first constructed, they go on to explore airplane travel:

They also explore cars, and boats but eventually they get to rockets.

It is very silly and fun, with very imaginative paintings. But I found I also really enjoyed the "appendix" section where they show what real vehicles look like. There is a section on the past and future of rocket travel.

This last double page section has several drawings I wanted to show you closer:

Very imaginative stuff including this futuristic space station, moon lander, and rocket.