As a Neurodivergent parent of neurodivergent children, I love the message of this story! You can do, and be anything you put your creative mind to achieving!

Anna the Manatee imagines that there is a "Manatee Queen" space traveler that lives on the moon, Loon challenges Anna to go and prove her theory.

Anna and her marine friends create a rocket ship and space helmet using ocean materials. The illustrations show how beautifully creative the sea animals are with the materials they have on hand.

Incredibly, Anna's space craft actually flies her through space and onto the moon. The colors of the illustrations are fantastical and eye catching! The space vocabulary is a nice addition, making this book stretch to include more ages/abilities (approx. 3-10yrs). There is even an accurate glossary included at the end of the book to extend the possibilities of lessons/activities that can be paired with this book.

Although Anna searches the moon for the Magical Queen Manatee, she does not seem to find her there. She travels back home, and is surprised when Loon points out a surprise in the sky!

I will definitely be recommending that our library's Head of Collections purchase this book for a storytime read and circulation. The cadence of the text is fun, and the illustrations offer great points to pause for sharing thoughts and discussion. It definitely lends itself to a perfect storytime treat!

I appreciate the reader's note for parents and educators to extend the psychological significance of the story. Offering caregivers an insight on how they can use this book to begin a discussion or personal understanding of how they can help build and support their child's positive self esteem.

Overall, I give this book two thumbs up! As a parent, certified educator, and children's librarian; I feel this book would be an excellent addition to schools', libraries', children's, and caregivers' book collection.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book prior to publication, and to offer my credentialed opinion. Well done Katie Gilstrap (author), Alice Samuel (illustrator), and Magination Press (publisher). I look forward to reading this to my Littles soon!

I absolutely loved this story. A manatee has a dream & makes it come true in Spacemanatee.
I love the rhyming that occurs in this book as well as the BEAUTIFUL illustrations. I have to littles under 4 & they both will love this story. The author writes beautifully & with kids in mind. I enjoyed the vocabulary page in the back of the book & some encouraging words about helping kids live to make their dreams come true.

I loved this one! The rhymes along with the science vocabulary. It even has information in the back about the terms used. I love manatees so I knew I had to read it. Glad I did. .

Spacemanatee is a cute story about Anna Lee Manatee and her adventure to the moon in search of the Manatee on the moon she knows is there. It’s a story that kids will certainly enjoy and I’d love to get a copy for my nephew. The illustrations are perfect and I loved the story of realizing you can be what you set out to find in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy!

This was a super cute read! It was perfect for my 4 year old. I liked the message. The illustrations were great as well and he really enjoyed it.

It was a little hard to see on my kindle but thankfully kids are easy to make happy. 😆

This is a cute little book about chasing your dreams and being whatever you want to be in life. You can do anything you put your mind to.

This book is about following an unlikely dream. It’s beautiful space setting and colorful illustrations send the message that you should go for your dreams.

The verse is excellent. The story is very good in plot, but an extension of the writing of verse could've greatly aided the whole. I understand the self-published truncating a tale. An endeavor of this size, should have much more to it. An extra 8 to ten pages would've been helpful.

One element needing expansion was where on earth was this manatee? One image indicates something along the lines of the White Cliffs of Dover, a place manatees can not survive. A location and a bit more of manatee habitat at the end, would've been wonderful. The way the book is written, the critter could've been any, just alter the verse.

The images are OK, but maybe one with a bit more knowledge of manatee would've strengthened the illustrations.

As a sleight book, this does work and children are likely to respond to it as much as if it was about gophers or gorillas.

This review is due to access via NetGalley.com.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 7 out of ten points.

A manatee and thier loon friend have a disagreement. The manatee thinks there's a manatee on the moon. She builds kelp ship and shell helmet and takes off to find the moon manatee.

The pictures are glorious. I liked the idea and the plot points of the story. The rhyming cadence is off. This makes it a bit of an awkward read aloud.

Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. I would definitely recommend this to all parents with small children

Spacemanatee! by Katie Gilstrap - 5/5

When Anna Lee, the Manatee is told by the Loon there is a manatee in the moon, she doesn't hesitate to rise to the challenge and head to the moon. Doing something like this opened the floor to discussion on being brave, courage and putting your fears aside. I loved the illustration and the amazing colors scheme throughout the story.

My only issue with this eARC is that the font is so tiny and even after zooming in as much as my device would allow, I still had to go eye-to-screen to read the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC it was a delightful story.

I loved this book. The art was adorable, and the message was warm and cozy. I like how she got the courage to go to the moon after the loon challenged her and told her to go prove there was a manatee there. A moonatee, if you will. I loved the wordplay so much. And the face at the end was just too cute. I fully support manatees in space!

A cute book about Anna Lee Manatee who goes to the moon to find the manatee she believes to be there. Very cute illustrations and an easy to read story!