Today I have found some "space crafting" : ) projects for you. Make Your Own Space Station is a series of cards that show you how to built some cute little space toys. It seems to have been part of of series of crafting cards of projects you could make from household objects. Probably a little strange but also a lot of fun to try.
Make Your Own Space Station. (Spears Games Project Cards.) New York: Ace Publishing. (10 cards.) 1970.
Even if a bit inappropriate, given politics, here is a cool Russian pop-up book. Not really space flight oriented but still interesting. Our Defenders was a book illustrating the Russian military including battlefield rockets. The images are stereotypical of Soviet times and an interesting choice for a children's book.
Mihalkov. Sergei. Illustrated by Beslik, A. НАШИ ЗАЩИТТНИКИ (Our Defenders.) Moscow: Baby Publishing (Mayysh) House. (16 p.) 1976.
So a large change for today, instead of Outer Space books we are going to Inner Space with Undersea Base. I have blogged about Mae Freeman's book Space Base (1974) several times. In it she showed children visiting a space station in the future. I recently found she had also written a children's book about futurist undersea exploration and children visiting an undersea base in the future. The late 60s and early 70s had an optimism about what might happen in the future and that shows in this lovely book. As a child of that time I remember being a big space flight fan and thinking about living in space as an astronaut and I also had dreams of living under the sea as an aquanaut.
Freeman, Mae. Illustrated by Mardon, John. Undersea Base. New York: Franklin Watts. (64 p.) 1974.
Here is another quick post for you. Space puzzles!
I last shared these in 2016 so it is about time to bring them back.
These were classroom puzzles (although they were probably owned by kids at home too). They were mostly for Kindergarten-2nd grade kids and were "educational" as well as fun. They are labeled as produced by the "Judy" company and were part of a "Space Exploration" series.
I really liked them when I found one. These 11 Judy puzzles are all the ones I was able to chase down. There are several about early space flight and a number about the Moon landing.
Here is another favorite rescanned since it's last posting 11 years ago. It was a coloring book that was a give-away from Lord and Taylor's Department stores. With it's moon dust snowflakes and 1970s design it is a winner every Christmas. I especially enjoy how Santa has to get into shape and be briefed on his mission to the Moon.
Merry Christmas on the Moon (and on Earth too...) to you all! Thanks for sticking with the mission.
The Moon Christmas Coloring Book. London: Lord and Taylors Dept. Store. (19 p.) 1970
