The Story Corner_issue 11_ISSUU by bookmarkreading

The Story Corner

A gift of stories and games for you to share and enjoy

INSIDE: lots of fun for ages 5-10 Stories, games and activities

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Hello readers and space fans! - My name is Kate Peridot, and I am a children’s author. I write books about people, animals and my favourite subject of all, SPACE!

My latest book, 12 Ways To Get A Ticket To Space was inspired by recent stories in the news. We live in an exciting time of space exploration. There are lots of new ways to go to space and YOU could one day visit space too. By the time you are an adult, humans will have returned to the Moon and even landed on Mars!

When I was a child, I read lots of fact books about the planets in our solar system and I was amazed to discover other stars had orbiting planets too. I also read story books that imagined strange new worlds. Two of my favourite books are, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in which the children find a magic portal to Narnia, and Dune where the family arrive by spaceship on a desert planet.

When I’m reading, I often feel like I am exploring! What kinds of story books and real-life stories inspire you?

Happy reading, Kate

But what’s that? It looks like a rocket has crashed, so we find our rocket building things

We measured and designed, Then we climbed aboard and started the countdown. and made ready the undercarriage. 2 stuck on pompoms and features,

Written by Kate Peridot, illustrated by

Terri Po, published by Wide Eyed

(Quarto) 2024

written and illustrated by Sam Usher

Boy and Grandad are looking through their telescope.

We plotted the intergalactic star charts, went through asteroid clouds, round a quasar . . .

. . . and finally reached the planet.

The astronauts were very pleased to see us. “Just look at our module!” they cried.

But it was so exciting I couldn’t sleep.

And I said, “It’s OK. We can fix that.”

So we measured and drilled and stuck and glued. It took ages.

The astronauts were thrilled.

“You must be tired,” they said. “Why don’t you come back to our space station for a nap?”

And neither could Grandad.

man in space.

ASTRONAUT HALL OF FAME

woman

First person to set foot

Longest stay on the Moon: 74 hours, 59 minutes on the Apollo 17 mission. 1972

First Black woman in space, on board Endeavour. 1992

Longest time living in space: 437 days on board the Mir space station. 1994-1995

Longest spacewalk: 8 hours, 56 minutes, to prepare the ISS for the installation of a storage unit. 2001

GET READY FOR YOUR TICKET TO SPACE!

It’s never too early to start practising the skills needed to travel and live in space. Why not start today?

First

Completed one orbit of Earth in Vostok 1. 1961

First

in space. Completed forty-eight orbits of Earth in Vostok 6. 1963

on the Moon. Commander of the Apollo 11 mission. 1969

Yuri Gagarin

Valentina Tereshkova

Neil Armstrong

Valeri Polyakov

James Voss & Susan Helms

Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt

Mae Jemison

Jerry Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz

Most spaceflights. Each astronaut launched in NASA Space Shuttles seven times and helped to construct the ISS. 1982-2002 and 1986-2002, respectively.

William Shatner

Oldest person in space, at 90 years old. Launched on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. 2021

– Chris Hadfield, astronaut.

A Little Blue Dot

by Maren Hasenjäger

Somewhere in our vast universe floats a little blue dot. This dot is Earth and she is surrounded by lots of impressive planets – Saturn with his ice-crystal rings and 82 moons, fiery Mars with his huge storms and volcanoes, bright and beautiful Venus...

“And then there’s me. Not very big, not particularly warm or cold, no giant storms or eternal summers or beautiful rings. Actually, I’m pretty bor…”

“Now stop that!” interrupts Mars. “I think you’re talking nonsense. For instance, we are all jealous of those giant oceans you have. All the water from my surface evaporated, so now I’m bone-dry.”

“And here, at the edge of the solar system, it’s pretty lonely and cold. I’d much prefer to be as close to the Sun as you are,” sighs Neptune.

MARS

JUPITER NEPTUNE URANUS

SATURN

EARTH

MARS

JUPITER

“Do you have any idea how exhausting it is when you’ve got 146 moons that won’t stop chatting to each other? It must be so nice and quiet when you’ve only got one moon, like you,” interjects Saturn. Then Earth hears another little voice...

URANUS

NEPTUNE

Earth looks around in surprise.

“Look closely, I’m here, really near,” calls the voice.

Taken from A Little Blue Dot by Maren Hasenjäger

Mama Makes Books.

Magellan

& Co. KG, Bamberg, Germany

Then Earth sees a child standing in the middle of her waving.

“Finally, you’re listening to me,” the child says. “I think you’ve forgotten something very important: you are the only planet I can live on. Here, it’s not too hot and not too cold. There is water and food and air to breathe. Only you have grass and crocodiles. And bees and sunflowers. And snow leopards and lakes to swim in and daisies and octopuses and snowball fights and cacti and blue whales and spaghetti and giant redwood trees and children and pizza and bouncy-balls and ants and coral reefs and summer holidays and ice cream with whipped cream on the top and much, much more!”

The child pauses and then smiles:

“You are exactly right for me!”

At that, Earth blushes and smiles…

You are great!

You have discovered a NEW planet on your space exploration!

Draw what it looks like What is your planet’s name?

Earth’s moon

Why not

Dot

Open your eyes!

Someone shook a fizzy universe and a festival of colour sprayed out. It’s a nebula — gas and dust squeezed ‘til it sparks and this is how our Star is born.

Some stars are big, some stars are small some blaze blue with great heat, but all of them forge the stuff in their hearts to make trillions of planets and moons.

Our star’s called the Sun and without her there’d be no life on this planet called Earth. Let’s open the curtains and let the light in and shine, Star, shine!

Star rises in the East to bring out the day turning the dark sky to gold.

Look, here comes a stag, the crowned king of morning, here comes a jackdaw, clattering a warning and here comes a fox who’s red as day’s dawning. We live and we play, we work and we sleep and Star’s at the heart of it all.

In one turn of the Earth there is night and there’s day as it orbits the star we call ‘sun’.

That orbit’s a loop around Star’s blazing sphere bringing spring, summer, autumn and winter. When an eagle owl sleeps, it’s time for others to wake so shine, Star, shine!

Space Word Search!

This word search is out of this world

Create

Earth Calling Aru

Written by Labanya Ghosh

Illustrated by Gitanjali Iyer

Published by Pratham Books

Read from left to right

“Pffff! That’s so unfair,” mutters Earth.

“Gravity is an amazing force. Air, plants, animals, mountains, oceans, stars, houses, cars and schools, Aru and even me –none of us would be where we are if it weren’t for gravity!”

“But how do I get Aru to see this?”

“Whaaaa...”

“Nooooooo!”

“Eeeeeeeeeee!”

“Whoaahhhhh!”

“Aaaaaaaaaa!”

"Please, please, stop! I called gravity silly because I want to fly. But now everything is flying," says Aru.

"Hmmmpppph! You think all gravity does is stop you from flying?"

"Huh? What else does it do apart from keeping me on the ground?" Aru asks.

Aru is at it again. She is, for the twentieth time, preparing to fly like the superheroes in her comic.

Earth hatches a plan.

And for the twentieth time, she screams, “Aaarrrrrrgh!”

“Gravity, I hate you!”

“Hello, Aru. This is Earth. Since you hate gravity so much, I have decided to take it away. Please fly around as much as you want to.”

“Of course, you will have to catch your cape first!”

Earth sighs and explains, “Gravity is an invisible force that makes everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, around us pull or attract each other. It keeps all things in order.”

Read from left to right

“Without it, all things, even you and I, would just float away and disappear into space. Poof!”

If you could fly...

Where would you go?

What would you do?

“Hmmm…and the moon? It’s pretty big too.” Aru asks.

“Ah, now you’re really beginning to catch on, Aru. The moon is much lighter than me, so it doesn’t pull you as hard as I do. But it is close enough to pull the water in our oceans and create tides.”

“And you will. You could learn to pilot a plane when you grow up, or take off to the moon in a rocket.”

Aru is thrilled to hear this. “Yes, one day, I WILL fly! Now can you please turn gravity back on again?”

Aru is quick to ask, “But where is all this pulling? I don’t see it at all.”

“Well observed, Aru! Everything is indeed pulling on each other all the time. You just don’t see or feel it because I am the heaviest object around you. And my pull is the strongest. So I pull everything to myself and keep us all grounded.”

“And my pull is the strongest around you because I have the most mass. Remember, greater the mass, stronger the pull,” says Earth.

Mass is the amount of matter or stuff in an object.

Aru is quiet for a while. Suddenly, she flaps her arms and says, “But I do want to fly! Fly, fly, fly away!”

“What did you break now, Aru?”

“It wasn’t me, Ma. It was gravity!”

Can you imagine being able to fly?

What would happen if there was no gravity?

Draw your ideas

Q&A with Dr Matt Bothwell

Author of Astrophysics for Supervillains

What is the weather like on Mercury?

Terrible! Either scorching hot (on the day side) or colder than a deep freeze (on the nighttime side).

How long could you survive on Venus?

Zero seconds. You’d be squished, roasted, and melted before you even got near the ground. Zero stars. Would not recommend.

Did you know, Earth didn’t have a moon to start with?

Around 5 billion years ago, a dwarf planet (that doesn’t exist anymore) called Theia smashed into Earth, breaking it into two lumps. The big lump is what we call the Earth, and the little chunk that got broken off is our Moon!

Why do scientists want to land on Mars so badly?

Because it would be really cool! Also it’s a useful stopping-off point for exploring the rest of the Solar System.

Just how big is Jupiter?

Huge! Jupiter is so massive it could swallow 1300 Earths, and still have room left over for more than 3000 Plutos. It’s huuuuuge!

How did Saturn get its rings?

Millions of years ago, one of Saturn’s many moons was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got torn to pieces by Saturn’s gravity. The poor moon was smashed into little bits – all these bits carried on orbiting around Saturn, and eventually spread out into a ring.

How fast is the wind on Uranus?

Up to 860 kilometers per hour! This is much, much faster than the most powerful hurricane ever recorded on Earth. Winds this fast would knock down buildings! Glad I don’t live on Uranus…

What makes Neptune so blue?

There is a gas called methane in Neptune’s atmosphere — and methane reflects blue light. Simple as that!

Why isn’t Pluto a planet anymore?

It turns out that Pluto is just one of the big rocks orbiting around the outskirts of our Solar System… and there are THOUSANDS of them out there. If we call Pluto a planet, we’d have to call them all planets. No one wanted to remember thousands of planets, so astronomers changed the rules and kicked Pluto out of the Planet club.

What is inside a black hole?

There is no inside a black hole! At the very centre of a black hole is a tiny speck called ‘The Singularity’, which is a dead star smushed into a dot smaller than an atom. Anything that falls into the black hole gets stretched out long and thin (this is called being SPAGHETTIFIED) before getting crushed into nothingness. Best avoided, I think.

Bothwell, illustrated by Nathan Reed. DK. £7.99. Out Now.

PEAKE

heading back to space!

FYI

Space Station with an allyear. We caught up with him mission are going.

about the mission?

Space and the UK Space memorandum [document] of hoping to launch it as an the commander of that any crew yet, and there’s commercial sponsorship, but opportunity for the UK, in particular engineering, but also for talking to schoolchildren during the could double that this time, opportunity.

planet. it together.”

announce the crew? the moment. There we’ve got the Farnborough (22-26 July), so there announcement then.

mixed with being weightless because that’s a completely

planet. We’re all living on this one small rock going around the sun and we’re all sharing this planet. We need to look

Tim wants to help young people discover all about the world and space

or overcome when you were in space?

I mean, the lifestyle is very tough in the years of training beforehand, trying to get any sort of family balance is very hard. Learning so much information in a short space of time, you really have to work out how to prioritise that. For me, languages were difﬁcult. I’m much more of a person who understands science, engineering, maths and technology, so to learn the Russian language was a real struggle. I think the great thing though is you’ve got lots of people around you who are there to help you.

struggle. I think the great thing though is you’ve got lots of people around you who are there to help you.

What was the hardest thing that you had to experience or overcome when you were in space?

of time, you really have to work out how to prioritise that. For me, languages were difﬁcult. I’m much more of a person who understands science, engineering, maths and technology, so to learn the Russian language was a real struggle. I think the great thing though is you’ve got lots of people around you who are there to help you.

of time, you really have to work out how to prioritise that. For me, languages were difﬁcult. I’m much more of a technology, so to learn the Russian language was a real struggle. I think the great thing though is you’ve got lots of people

space? I mean, the lifestyle is very tough in the years of training beforehand, trying to get any sort of family balance is very hard. Learning so much information in a short space of time, you really have to work out how to prioritise that. For me, languages were difficult. I’m much more of a person who understands science, engineering, maths and technology, so to learn the Russian language was a real struggle. I think the great thing though is you’ve got lots of people around you who are there to help you.