Great audio. Cute and inspirational story. Loved all the details and emotion. The author clearly knows her stuff and di her research on both astronauts and cerebral palsy, and I love reading stories about things I’m not super familiar with. There is a high lean on NASA and other space programs not being accessible to the disabled. So that was interesting.
Here’s where it lost me. In the author’s note. Yes, I made it all the way through the book, enjoyed it, and then bam, she mentions importance of diversity in programs like NASA, and junior space programs…and includes nonbinary people. Come on now, this is a middle grade book. Simply addressing the issue of white men being the only people allowed to be astronauts is clear enough. Now we need to bring gender confusion into the mix for CHILDREN?! No thanks.
I have loved this author. All the Impossible things was my daughter’s favorite book for years. My daughter even wrote to the author a sweet note thanking her for writing such a beautiful book….and the author eventually wrote back.
But I’m so tired of books slipping this in and making it perfectly normalized. I can get behind diversity until we start spreading confusion about the only two genders: male and female. But definitely not a children’s book. Give me a break.

I tried to allow my stars to reflect the story and not the author’s note, but alas,

Thank you Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners for accepting my request to audibly read and review Farther Than the Moon on NetGalley.

Narrator: Joshua Wichard

Wow -- did I really just read a children's fiction book? I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I had one plot issue; a successful astronaut would be vetted and not blindly walk into a room. This was a small cloud over a really blue sky.

The synopsis is clear and I won't repeat it. Lackey did a good job mentioning the father of the boys, and him not wanting to deal with a disabled son. I appreciated that he was portrayed in a cut and dry manner. The author lightly skimmed issues, didn't detail or go into depth, perhaps that's the Children's Fiction. The mother's struggles with one severely disabled son, one dreamer son, and she being estranged from her own father was done beautifully. There were times I was tired for her, as well as times I wanted to cry for her. I stayed frustrated with the father, waiting for an unrealistic gallant return. (My experience as a reader.)

Lackey writes the children and their camp adventure impressively. These are smart kids preteen,at space camp. Yikes! Future problem solvers. Hard work, winning, losing as well as team work were all shown to be necessary for success in a believable fashion.

Joshua Wichard was amazing. His performance is what I expect from every audio book.

I don't know what prompted me to read this, but I am glad that I did, and I'm a better person for the experience.

This was a good story, I liked the cerebral palsy representation. The two brother's love space and one is sent to space camp while his brother has to stay home even though they've both dreamed about going to space together. You also meet and learn about Houston's estranged grandfather who you find out was an astronaut. I did not expect this storyline with the drama between Houston's mom and grandfather and why they are distanced, but you get to see how they process the events that lead to their estrangement and overcome them. Overall this was a nice story and I would recommend it.

Great neurodivergent and cerebral palsy character representation!

Houston and his brother Robbie have been space obsessed their whole lives, memorizing astronaut trivia, watching the stars, and dreaming of one day becoming astronauts. The only barrier is that Robbie has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, but Houston has promised to never leave Robbie behind.

When Houston gets accepted to the Junior Astronaut Recruitment Program, he feels like he's finally getting his big break! This is not just space camp, this is the pathway to interviewing and training to become an astronaut. As training ramps up, Houston realizes that it may be more of a challenge to include Robbie in the journey than he previously thought. Houston is torn between giving his all to training, learning to be part of a team, and finding a way to include his brother.

This book has beautiful themes of friendship and teamwork. There are real adult issues presented as Houston's mom works to repair her relationship with her estranged father who she felt abandoned her. The themes of redemption and family were done very well. There is a lot of heart and introspective moments that are mixed with the faster paced scenes of astronaut-candidates completing competitive missions, and Robbie dealing with severe medical episodes. This would be perfect for a reader who likes to explore realistic fiction and can empathize with characters' struggles.



One quick note to educators listening to the audiobooks with middle school students: astronaut-candidates is abbreviated to ast-cans which is pronounced exactly like "ass cans." I'm not sure if that is a universal term or if it went over the head of all the editors, but... it's good to be aware of. :)

5 out of 5 Stars

A lovely story about two brothers with a love for space and a desire to astronauts expect the younger brother has an a disability that would make it impossible for to go to space but is older brother is willing to fight to get him there one day.