The Solar System Pop-up Book (1978?)

 

My first Greek space book. This is a fun pop-up book I found recently. It is pretty basic but I really like space pop-up books for their design and impact.

Adelva. The Solar System Pop-up Book. Greece: Dotam International. 12 pp. 1978

Gumby and Pokey Coloring Book (1966)

 

Since part of this blog is reliving the joys of my childhood I need to talk about Gumby and Pokey. Gumby was a television show for children that ran (at least for me) from 1953-1969. It was stop-motion animated adventures of two figure made of "clay." It was a highlight of my youth because of its emphasis on imagination. There would be all kinds of adventures but my favorite were when they would go inside books to experience the books adventures. I was an early and avid reader so this was an exciting idea to me. So when Gumby and Pokey had space flight adventures I was captivated. So these drawing from the coloring book are pretty primitive but still bring back some great memories.

Gumby on the Moon -https://youtu.be/eJDJ1ALa9Eo

Gumby-Moon Trip (1956)- https://youtu.be/wt87rvCPViQ

Gumby and Pokey Coloring Book (Whitman #1141). Drawings by Ben Greenberg. Whitman Press. 1966.

Building Reading Skills (1951)

Today is a series of school spelling workbooks. What does that have to do with space? They chose an aerospace theme for their series of books and since spaceflight was the trend for children they "branded" them.  Truly these are pretty dull books even with a couple of space pictures but the covers are interesting. The themes were: Speedboat, JATO Car, Jet Plane, Rocket, Atomic Gyro, and Space Ship.

Armstrong, Leila and Hargrave, Rowena. Building Reading Skills. Wichita, KS : McCormick-Mathers. 64 p. 1951.

Into Space: Man's First Controlled Space Flight (1961)

 

A bit of ephemera today. This is a pamphlet from a Revell Model Kit. They issued this kit quickly to take advantage of the excitement about this launch. So they had to include a booklet to explain why this slightly inaccurate model was so special. Imagine opening the model kit and reading this story.

Specifically this one, Revell Model Space 1/110 scale - Redstone Missile With Mercury Capsule (No. H1832-98 ) (nice description)

Telstar: Communication Break-through by Satellite (1962)

 

Sorry to skip a week, it may happen again next week.

Here is a straight history book of an current (at the time) and wonderful event in global communication. We has lost track of how satellites have changed our lives and made the earth a smaller place. It is a little dull in content but I like the period photographs and the excitement of a coming age of earth orbiting satellites.

Solomon, Louis. Telstar: Communication Break-through by Satellite. New York : McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc. (64 p.) 1962.

First image transmitted by Telstar

Imagine a network of 50 satellites allowing 2400 telephone calls at once. Who could imagine such an outrageous and impossible future?