Endurance, Young Readers Edition: My Year in Space and How I Got There

by Scott Kelly, George Newbern (Narrator)

7 Hours and 3 Minutes

Newly adapted for young readers from the New York Times bestseller comes the awe-inspiring memoir from NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a record-breaking year in space.

How does a boy struggling in school become an American hero and a space pioneer?

Daredevil behavior? Check. Whether it is sailing leaky boats in the Atlantic Ocean or joining an ambulance corps to race to the rescue, living on the edge is required behavior for an astronaut.

Sibling rivalry? Check. An identical twin brother who both cheers you on and eggs you on is the perfect motivator.

Inspiration? Check. Finding the right book can unexpectedly change the course of your life by providing a dream and a road map for achieving it.

Courage? Check. Mastering skills that could mean the difference between life and death as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut takes bravery.

Endurance? Check. The grit and can-do spirit that enables you to get up every time you're knocked down and fuels the power to meet each challenge head-on and then ask, "What's next?"

Scott Kelly believes, "If you can dream it, you can do it." This checklist put Scott on a rocket that launched him into space, allowed him to break a record during his inspiring year aboard the International Space Station, and showed human beings the qualities needed to go from Earth to Mars--and beyond.

"An engaging and high-flying read for nonfiction and space lovers alike." -- School Library Journal

"Those who are intrigued by space travel will find this a fascinating book." -- Booklist

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle Grade, Memoir, Space, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published October 16, 2018

About the author

Scott Kelly is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. In October 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space, the single longest space mission by an American astronaut. His identical twin brother is Mark Kelly, also a former astronaut.

Reviews

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endurance: My Year in Space and How I Got There by Scott Kelly, 310 pages. NON-FICTION Crown Books (Penguin Random House), 2018. $18.

Language: G: Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ESSENTIAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Scott Kelly had a hard time concentrating in school, but he developed a curiosity and love of flying and space that motivated him to become an astronaut. Kelly tells of his sibling rivalry with his twin, his struggles with school and his courage to try new things. He describes his time on the space station for a year and what it was like to come home.

Scott Kelly’s confident tone throughout his biography was inspiring and made for an interesting read. I loved the time spent on the space station and all the details that daily living in space entailed. I felt like I was living in space and the intense traveling from earth to the space station was stressful. I enjoyed the colored pictures that were included and even if you have students who aren’t obsessed with space, this book is a good biographical read. Content-wise there isn’t anything elementary kids couldn’t read, but the reading level would work better for middle and high school.

Reviewer, C. Peterson
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2020...

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

For this one, I guess I'd want to read the adult version to compare because I didn't hit it off with this book and think it's the approach Kelly takes with the book as well as the choppy tell-don't-show sentences that didn't pull me in. There were assumptions and understandings that need to be made from the start since his first few sentences are "Mark and me". Adults would know that they are twins and have some context of their history, but most middle grade readers who the book is targeted to, likely will not and would not have the patience to stick with it to dive in to his journey with NASA and the experiments in which they use their twindom to study.

Though I will say the epilogue is uplifting but the storytelling lacks finesse of an editor or ghost writer to have written this story in a way that would be more appealing to its intended audience.

[Ron Tonelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the two reviews here seem to say that Scott Kelly seemed to be a little light on detail, I'm looking for quality literary nonfiction for my eighth grade students, and this book is going to be perfect! He tells his story with just the right amount of depth to engage young readers, but then moves onto another interesting topic. I think this is perfect for the target audience. It's great to see someone who struggled a bit through school and worked hard and achieved his major goal. Students will be able to relate to his struggles and outcome. Also, he does a great job detailing his major mission. This is a great read for middle level and early high school readers!

[Laura Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott Kelly details his life from childhood as a risk-taking twin in New Jersey to living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for a full year. Scott was a poor student in high school, but found motivation in reading The Right Stuff, a book about a pilot, along with an inspirational phone call with his twin Mark Kelly in college. Once Scott learned how to study he found he could be a good student and that for him he "needed to be all in or I would mess up." He attended New York's Maritime College, worked in the U.S. Navy as a pilot and then applied to be an astronaut with NASA. He and his brother were accepted to NASA the same year (I found the NASA interview process fascinating). Kelly makes observations throughout his book about the importance of learning from mistakes and that "diverse teams were stronger teams" along with the more mundane realizations such as "there isn't really a good way to spit in space" when brushing one's teeth. Occasionally funny, highly detailed and teeming with photographs (most are black and white, but a center spread is in color), this book is sure to be a hit with students who want to know more about what it's like to live in space.

There was a fair amount of information about toileting in space, which I didn't appreciate, but perhaps middle school students will feel differently. (They drink distilled pee! They wear diapers for launch! A broken toilet is REALLY bad. At a certain point it got to be TMI).

[Booker Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was told from the point of view Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut that spent over 500 days in space during his life. Scott was a very reliable narrator because he described the things that both the Russian space agency and NASA were doing right and wrong as well as described the things he enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about the process of traveling and living in space. I liked that this book was set in a very recent time period, him landing from space the most recent time in March 2016. It was very interesting to learn about the many differences about living on earth and in outer space. Although Scott spends most of his time describing his journey from the Air Force to spending a year in space, he does include information about his family and how they dealt with him living away from them for long periods of time. I personally enjoyed this book a lot, it seemed like there was a never ending amount of information and insight he could bring to such a complex topic. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in space travel or is curious to learn about the ISS and what it is like to live in space. Check out my blog for more book reviews like this at bit.ly/1025blog

[Julien Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a memoir about the astronaut Scott Kelly, his time in space, and how he ended up as an astronaut. He begins by talking about his childhood and when he and his brother were awakened by his parents on July 21, 1969, to watch the people walk on the moon for the first time. He said after that day he wanted to be an astronaut. After that, he talks furthermore about his life.

He explained what the abbreviations meant, for example, “I had 250 new MUGs (Midshipmen Under Guidance) to train.” (Endurance by Scott Kelly, page 28. Published by Alfred A. Knopf (US)Viking Press (UK). Midshipmen are naval cadets in the US Navy. “Soon after classes started, I joined the Navy ROTC, which stands for Reserve Officers Training Corp-my path into the Navy.” (Endurance by Scott Kelly, page 26. Published by Alfred A. Knopf (US)Viking Press (UK)

I have not finished it yet, but it is good so far. I would rate it 5 stars. I liked how he explained what the abbreviations meant and how he gave detail to things than just saying how it felt.

[LeeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Scott Kelly was returning from the ISS after his year-long mission, I was in the middle of teaching space exploration to my 6th graders. We watched his preparation leading up to his return to Earth, followed his Twitter feed, and cheered when he was back safely on Earth. It was perfect for our curriculum and this Young Readers Edition is perfect for my middle grade students to learn so many life lesson from Scott Kelly. I've assigned it as part of my Space-Themed Literature assignment, and I know my students will get a lot out of this version!

“I’ve learned that most problems aren’t rocket science, but when they are rocket science, you should ask a rocket scientist.”

[Stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book! It was easy to read and at the perfect level for my 6th grader to understand and yet learn things about space and the ISS. Curiosity was sparked! It was inspiring as a parent to read about someone who struggled in school yet went on to learn how to learn and accomplish great things.

If you have a kid who loves space, this is a great book for them! He writes with a great "voice," keeping the story interesting and fun.

[Jill Campbell]

I admit I haven't read this version, but only the full version. However, to answer some questions about how the Young Readers' Edition is different from the full version, I'll make a couple of observations. The Young Readers' Edition is about half the length. The full version has swearing. So, to answer one reviewer's question about whether the full version would be better for their 7 year-old, I'd answer NO. (I wish I could get the full version with just the bad words removed!)

[Polly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The info about becoming an astronaut and his time on the space station has strong appeal but I don't think the personal memoir aspects were well-adapted for young readers--not so much inappropriate content but just sounded like he was talking to adults instead of children when he shared info about family/personal life.

[Diana Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads book #1,000!

Interesting read about Scott Kelly's year in space and the training and preparation that got him there.

I've always been interested in space exploration and used to teach a unit on space when I taught 5th & 6th grade. This would be a great book for the students to read.

*Audiobook*

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that Scott found his purpose in life after reading the book “The Right Stuff.” Once he set his goal, his work ethic is amazing. I found it fascinating how much work on the International Space Station is in preparation for one day possibly reaching Mars.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly great and just a little spooky with its mentions of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, which I recently gave up halfway through. I'd be interested to compare this version with the "adult" version.

[Mary Keen · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd time for this version also --a good job of condensing the story to interest youth

I'll be presenting the adult version at my book club soon, so wanted to review it. Have recommended both versions to several friends.



overdrive audio 1.25

[Tod · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book isn’t bad, it’s just not something I’d prefer to read for my own enjoyment. If you like science, aerospace, or aviation, then this is a good book for you. Otherwise, you’ll probably share my thoughts 😁

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook with my 7 year old in conjunction with our homeschool space study unit, and we were both captivated and learned so much. Great story shared from a perspective very few humans have.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and to the point look at becoming an astronaut. I felt like I was in space with him.

[Janeth Rangel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro interesante y entretenido con una historia inspiradora.

[Bridget]

I was looking for some narrative non-fiction for middle school booktalks, and this was perfect. It's compelling, with lots of details about life in space and plenty of build up to how he got there.

[Noah Grinberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. Not a lot of action or suspense.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun to read during the time that perseverance was landing on Mars, which was not manned. The book gave me an idea of how hard landing a person on Mars will be.

[Kelly]

This book was just as good a second time through as it was the first time. I had to reread it to do a PowerPoint program based on it.

[Jamey Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this with my 12 year old grandson and learned a lot about living in space.

[Williamslindsey3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't as engaging of a read-aloud as I'd hoped, but still good, especially the 2nd half.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our family WA summer/fall road trip audiobook. I liked it but my space loving kids loved it. They gave it a 4.5. :)

[Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Bland. Bad. Idk I had to read it for a school project otherwise I wouldn't have.

[HAYDEN R]

Good book. but unfortunately, I had to return it to the IMC at my school. As a result, I didn't get to read much of it.

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn about what space was like and what it took to get there!

[Trulie Honegger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott's story of his struggles in school with his ADHD and how he overcame it was inspirational and interesting. I also enjoyed reading about his time in the ISS.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

6th-8th grade
Biography
This is an overall great book. It has some great detail throughout the voyage helping the reader be as close to the action as possible. I'm definitely not disappointed I decided to make this a part of my book shelf. If you love space you're gonna love what's in store between these pages!!