Space Witch (1959)

 

Here is a Halloween space book post for you. I have done posts for Christmas, Easter and Yuri's Night but never one for Halloween.

Space Witch is a pleasant story about a witch who wants to expand her frightening to creatures on other planets. She constructs a "space broom" and a space suit and goes looking for fun and scares. Her big breakthrough was using jet-black magic for fuel. A solution Von Braun had rejected in the early 50s :) 

Freeman, Don. Space Witch. New York: Puffin Books. (48 p.) 1959

Outer Space (1953)

 

An oldie from 15 years ago (The last time I blogged about this one). I found my copy of this and was able to add a lot more scans of this early space treasure.  Outer Space was evidently a give-away comic book at Atlantic Richfield gas stations. For those of you who did not know, often in the 1950s and 1960s when you got a tank of gas there were promotional giveaways. They could be comics, books, dishes, antennae balls...etc.

This is a treasury of early space flight illustrations and I assume few have seen this. So I have tried to scan as much of the comic as I could. A lot of it seems to have been "borrowed" or influenced by the March 22, 1952 Collier's issue.

Atlantic Richfield. Outer Space. New York: Vital Publications. (15 p.) 1953.

Can you imagine? A rocket could cost more than 4 million dollars! And be more than 300 ft high.

The Hero's Ride (1963)

 

This was a reprint of a 1961 Russian book translated into Estonian in 1963.  It is mostly an anthology of stories for children but with space art on the cover and a couple of space illustrations within I needed to share it.

Jarunkova, Klara. Illustrated by Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus. Translated by A. Raid.  The Hero's Ride. Tallinn: Estonia. (90 p.) 1963.

I think the translated title is : "To the Moon with A Rocket. " It seems to be about a a boy and his friend and his dog who want to go to the moon (since they are bored after school.)

This one is from "A New Space Plan." It is about a journey to Mars and how we will bring them gifts from Earth.

The Boy Who Discovered the Earth (1955)

 

Continuing with a bit of a flying saucer theme today is The Boy Who Discovered The Earth. It is a pleasant science fiction novel for kids about an alien boy who is left behind on Earth. He makes friends with the locals and learns about dogs, baseball, and the life of children on another planet. 

The only trick is they don't look like humans at the beginning but disguise themselves as human. The "boy" keeps up this masquerade for the entire novel. Talk about Invasion of the Body Snatchers! What child finished this one without wondering which of his friends or teachers was actually an alien?

The illustrations are better than average and use the then-current current fad for children with spacesuits, space helmets, and ray guns.

Felson, Henry Gregor. The Boy Who Discovered the Earth. NY: Scribner. (140 p) 1955.