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Ad Astra: 161 Adventurers, Astronauts, Discoverers, Explorers, Pilots, Pioneers, Scientists
This fact-filled, fully illustrated new book features biographical articles about 161 characters with Kansas connections: adventurers, astronauts, discoverers, explorers, pilots, pioneers and scientists. Their adventures and discoveries have helped define the Sunflower State and its colorful heritage. Includes well-known Kansans such as George Washington Carver, Amelia Earhart, Martin and Osa Johnson, Charles and George Sternberg, Clyde Tombaugh — plus dozens more you'll want to know, like Merle “Mudhole” Smith, Carol Fabian, John “Big Jack” Ashcraft, Mary Jane Pixley, Harvey Nininger. . . . First volume in a planned series!
144 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2014
4 people want to read
About the author
Dave Webb
51 books1 followerDave Webb is an author and educator from Pennsylvania. His tenth book, Mr. Nomad: Tales of a Traveling Teacher chronicles his nearly thirty-year career as an elementary school teacher in three states.
Webb started his writing career as a newspaper reporter. Soon he felt a calling to become a teacher. He has taught fourth and fifth grade for more than twenty years.
After becoming a teacher, Webb had an itch to do more writing. That's when he decided to write a humorous children's book loosely based on true events. Slinky Inkermann and the Crazy Contest was published in 1996, followed by two sequels.
In 2007 Webb published a short novel for young adults entitled Amber. The book tells the story of a young girl whose unstable home life causes her to hear disturbing voices. The heart-wrenching story is fast-paced and addresses the problem of domestic abuse and neglect from a child's point of view.
In 2012 Webb published Barkley Rules, which is a humorous chapter book about a sixth-grader who tries to rid his middle school of bullying.
Two more books followed in 2013. A sequel to Amber, entitled Amber Lee, was published in March. Then came a new edition of the second Slinky Inkermann book, Superfreaky Summer.
In 2015 Webb released The Challenge for ages 7-10 and The House on Eerie Street for ages 9-12.
Webb started his writing career as a newspaper reporter. Soon he felt a calling to become a teacher. He has taught fourth and fifth grade for more than twenty years.
After becoming a teacher, Webb had an itch to do more writing. That's when he decided to write a humorous children's book loosely based on true events. Slinky Inkermann and the Crazy Contest was published in 1996, followed by two sequels.
In 2007 Webb published a short novel for young adults entitled Amber. The book tells the story of a young girl whose unstable home life causes her to hear disturbing voices. The heart-wrenching story is fast-paced and addresses the problem of domestic abuse and neglect from a child's point of view.
In 2012 Webb published Barkley Rules, which is a humorous chapter book about a sixth-grader who tries to rid his middle school of bullying.
Two more books followed in 2013. A sequel to Amber, entitled Amber Lee, was published in March. Then came a new edition of the second Slinky Inkermann book, Superfreaky Summer.
In 2015 Webb released The Challenge for ages 7-10 and The House on Eerie Street for ages 9-12.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 31, 2018
Upon checking this book out from the library I found that it wasn't quite the book that I was looking for and although the author is the same for both I was quite disappointed. Instead since he wrote "399 Kansas Characters", the author has chosen to extend the original by making it 999 characters thus allowing him and his coauthors to include more modern Kansans in the seven years between the two publications.
Unlike the original 399, this book takes a handful of famous Kansans and breaks it down into a more themed group. Instead of famous athletes rubbing elbows with explorers, pioneers and famous animals this particular book took on a more focused glimpse at those daredevils who challenged the limits of their time and took a more bold advance at life whether it was bettering the fields of science, extending the frontier or whatever else they set their minds to. With that much theme in mind the book did a wonderful job of combining some earlier pioneers, adventures and field-advancing scientists.
Unlike the original book, though, the entries aren't kid-friendly reading but instead have enough information to make it a hefty enough book that it is awkward to carry around and somewhat of a dull read. Furthermore most entries take up either half of a page to a few pages depending upon how much information has been reached while being illustrated with a combination of artwork and/or photography to give the reader an idea of the topic being discussed.
At the same with some of the bigger entries there have been added blocks that either gives more information on a particular aspect of the entry and in some rare cases an added bio of another person that is related to the one that it follows. The latter are basically written with the mindset of an encyclopedia with just basic facts given and not in the best order thus they read more of a list than an entry for the reader.
At the same time the writing font is in rather small print that isn't friendly to the eyes, especially when you combine with a dark background illustration and font color that blends in with the background. There were some parts of the book that I had to lean towards a lamp and even with that type of bright lighting I still had problems reading. At the same time the entries weren't consistent in their presentation with some being in chronological format while others were forthcoming in the merits then proceeded back to the start of the character's life.
All in all if I had a chance I would have reshelved this book again while keeping with the restricted original if I had known what I was in for. I am not quite sure who would be truly interested in this particular book unless they like the subject matter, a heavy factual read or one that is based upon Kansans whether they are native-born or visitors. Otherwise if you just want to get to know a handful of Kansans in a rather much easier reading form than go with the original "399 Kansas Characters".
Unlike the original 399, this book takes a handful of famous Kansans and breaks it down into a more themed group. Instead of famous athletes rubbing elbows with explorers, pioneers and famous animals this particular book took on a more focused glimpse at those daredevils who challenged the limits of their time and took a more bold advance at life whether it was bettering the fields of science, extending the frontier or whatever else they set their minds to. With that much theme in mind the book did a wonderful job of combining some earlier pioneers, adventures and field-advancing scientists.
Unlike the original book, though, the entries aren't kid-friendly reading but instead have enough information to make it a hefty enough book that it is awkward to carry around and somewhat of a dull read. Furthermore most entries take up either half of a page to a few pages depending upon how much information has been reached while being illustrated with a combination of artwork and/or photography to give the reader an idea of the topic being discussed.
At the same with some of the bigger entries there have been added blocks that either gives more information on a particular aspect of the entry and in some rare cases an added bio of another person that is related to the one that it follows. The latter are basically written with the mindset of an encyclopedia with just basic facts given and not in the best order thus they read more of a list than an entry for the reader.
At the same time the writing font is in rather small print that isn't friendly to the eyes, especially when you combine with a dark background illustration and font color that blends in with the background. There were some parts of the book that I had to lean towards a lamp and even with that type of bright lighting I still had problems reading. At the same time the entries weren't consistent in their presentation with some being in chronological format while others were forthcoming in the merits then proceeded back to the start of the character's life.
All in all if I had a chance I would have reshelved this book again while keeping with the restricted original if I had known what I was in for. I am not quite sure who would be truly interested in this particular book unless they like the subject matter, a heavy factual read or one that is based upon Kansans whether they are native-born or visitors. Otherwise if you just want to get to know a handful of Kansans in a rather much easier reading form than go with the original "399 Kansas Characters".
Displaying 1 of 1 review