The Final Journey of the Saturn V, by Andrew R. Thomas and Paul N. Thomarios is a good book to add to this summer’s reading list. The nontechnical person should not be deterred by the title since the majority of the book covers the history of the rocket and the space race while the final chapter covers some of the details about the restoration process of the deteriorated Saturn V that weathered outside of Kennedy Space Center Florida for over a decade.
The authors do a great job explaining that during the Cold War the Soviet Union started to surpass the United States in in terms of rocketry and space exploration. For example, the Soviets launched the first satellite into Earth orbit, sent a probe to the Moon, launched the first rocket carrying a man that orbited the Earth, launched the first rocket carrying a woman that orbited the Earth and launched a rocket carrying the first man that walked in space.
All these first by the Soviets had a profound effect on Americans who finally realized that if the United States was going to have an influence in space exploration, they needed to get busy. And busy they got.
After a challenge from President Kennedy to put a man on the Moon and safely return him before the end of the 1960’s and a cash infusion from the United States government, NASA expanded operations that employed over 400,000 individuals who worked for NASA and its many subcontractors. The Saturn V rockets that would take over a dozen men to the moon and launch Skylab into orbit is the end result of the money, manpower and determination that drove the United States of America to take the lead in the space race after the slow start and second place status it held for several years.
Sadly, after making it to the moon several times the public grew tired of NASA and the Moon missions so funding for NASA dried up. Jobs were lost and equipment was neglected and misplaced. Locating and restoring the equipment and preserving it for future generations is covered in the last chapter.
Authors Thomas and Thomarios do a great job of keeping the book nontechnical so that the causal reader who has no science background can easily understand and enjoy it while keeping it interesting enough for the more experienced reader who specializes in the history of space flight.
A real plus for this book is an impressive foreword written by Captain Gene Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17 and the last man to have walked on the Moon. In addition to the foreword, there are many unique photographs ranging from those that made the Moon landings possible to the equipment involved and those in charge of restoring the Saturn V for our future generations.
Reviewer David Hamilton and his wife live in Conway, Arkansas. They are amateur astronomers that love spending nights stargazing. David is an Educational Technologist and a multidisciplinary researcher currently attending the University of Arkansas at Little as a graduate student. David is an alumni of the University of Oklahoma and Rose State College.
Dr. Nick Lomb’s book, “Transit Of Venus: 1631 To The Present,” covers the history of observed transits of Venus since the invention of the telescope in the early seventeenth century. The timing of the release of this book coincides with the upcoming transit of Venus, the last one that anyone alive today can witness due to the fact that the next transit will occur on December 2117. The upcoming transit will take place on June 5th or 6th of 2012, depending on your location, and Dr. Lomb’s book has a wealth of information on the times and locations across the globe from where one can observe the event.
During this transit, an observer on Earth can track the planet Venus as it crosses the disc of the Sun. One reason to track the transit of Venus is to get an accurate measurement of the size of our solar system. Although today we know the size of our solar, system Dr. Lomb’s book describes how this has not always been the case.
In the 1600’s Johannes Kepler, the famous German astronomer and astrologer, established the ratios of the distances of the known planets from the Sun. Knowing the ratios was a huge leap, however it did nothing to establish the size of our solar system. According to the text, if science could accurately determine the distance of a planet from the Sun, the distances of all the other planets could easily be known. Our adventure began once it was determined that timing the transit of a planet crossing the disc of the Sun from different locations on Earth would allow us to know the true size of our solar system.
Establishing the exact distance to the Sun was considered by Astronomer Royal Sir George Airy of the Greenwich Observatory in London “the noblest problem in astronomy.” The great nations of the time agreed and made arrangements to send out teams of scientists to the far reaches of the globe in hopes of attaining the required data.
Dr. Lomb covers each of the transits in detail by not only explaining the logistics involved in getting people and instruments to prime locations for observing the transits but also by providing a background story of those involved along with the triumphs and tragedies. When describing the people Lomb provides background information such as when they were born, their social and economic status, education, profession, and training, painting a clear picture of who the person really was and what their qualifications were. In addition to the background information, we are also presented with a detailed description of the preparations for the journey to remote sites across the globe including the adventures and misfortunes these individuals encountered along the way. This writing style provides for a connection with the adventures so one can appreciate the hardships endured to promote science by gaining and sharing knowledge about the world and universe that we live in.
The early transit expeditions were nothing short of an adventure. Lomb covers this well in the retelling of stories such as Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon’s journey to observe the transit. On this famous mission for the Royal Society, the ship carrying Mason and Dixon, the Seahorse, encountered the French warship, Le Grand. The end result of this encounter was the loss of 11 dead and almost 40 wounded. Needless to say, Mason and Dixon lost their nerve and informed the Royal Society that they were no longer interested in carrying out their duties, requiring persuasion in the form of threats to get them back on track. Mason and Dixon ended up at Cape Town instead of Bencoolen, Sumatra. Cape Town worked out well because the gentlemen had plenty of time to set up an observatory and calibrate instruments well before the day of the transit. Their measurements were so successful that they became well known and a few years later would be hired to survey a disputed boundary in the New World that would become famously known as the Mason-Dixon Line.
Whether it be Horrocks and Crabtree, Mason and Dixon, Le Gentil or Chappe, Lomb tells a story of ordinary humans doing the extraordinary in the name of science. Lomb reminds us that with success often comes failure. Consider, for example, the Frenchman Le Gentil who spent over 11 years chasing the transit across the globe, only to have it obscured by a cloud. Then he finally returned home to find out his estate was being squandered by those he had thought he could trust.
Lomb even describes how some gave their lives in the name of science. Consider the story of the Frenchman Chappe who understood the importance of getting an accurate timing of the transit in 1769. Despite imminent danger, Chappe stayed near San Jose del Cabo during the outbreak of a deadly epidemic that in the end cost him his life.
So, how does Lomb feel about these people and their willingness to lose everything, including in some cases, their lives, with the hopes of advancing scientific knowledge? “I greatly admire them for their willingness to set off for little known places and take risks in order to contribute to solving what was then the most crucial problem in astronomy,” Lomb told Universe Today via email. “Of course, we do need to realise that they lived in a world very different from ours: a world in which every journey was a boys’ own adventure, a world in which distant places were isolated, little known and genuinely different, and were only accessible after travel that was long and difficult.”
As for if there is anything comparable today, Lomb said the obvious comparison is with astronauts, especially those who first went into space and to the Moon. “Adventurous scientists today include volcanologists who travel to exotic places such as Papua New Guinea to study erupting volcanoes and storm chasers who fly into storms to study them,” Lomb said. “Possibly the best comparison to the astronomers of the 18th century are the scientists spending the dark and cold winter in Antarctica at places such as at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station so as to study the ice, the weather and to make astronomical observations from the driest place on Earth.”
In addition to the detailed stories, the book also contains a stunning collection of 140 photos and illustrations covering everything from high definition NASA images to drawings from the explorers themselves. The book also includes amazing images, maps and diagrams of the technologies used during the various transits.
Anyone interested in the upcoming transit of Venus will find this book to be a great resource for understanding the historical and scientific significance of the event along with valuable information to observe the event.
Reviewer David Hamilton and his wife live in Conway, Arkansas. They are amateur astronomers that love spending nights stargazing. David is an Educational Technologist and Multidisciplinary researcher currently attending the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as a graduate student. David is an alumni of the University of Oklahoma and Rose State College.
For those of us interested in the night sky, what could be better than having an astronomer for a friend? Well, how about if that astronomer friend has written a book detailing everything you can see in the night sky for every night of the year?
Universe Today’s very own Tammy Plotner has written that book, and it’s called “Night Sky Companion 2012.” Inside, you’ll find information on meteor showers, planetary alignments, lunar features, deep sky objects, eclipses, transits and more. Tammy has written the book in her unique conversational tone (well known to UT readers!) and provides all the information you’ll need – for those just looking up with their own eyes to those using binoculars or even larger telescopes.
Tammy’s book is available on Amazon in both print ($19.99 USD) and Kindle ($4.99) formats.
“Night Sky Companion 2012” has nightly information for both northern and southern hemispheres, and the book provides coordinates, basic star charts and realistic illustrations to help you find what you want to see, every night of the year.
Tammy is no stranger to writing books, as she has written several night sky guides over the years (see the complete list here). And of course, she is an award-winning astronomer, too!
“The ‘Night Sky Companion 2012’ is not just about finding objects in the night sky,” says Tammy, “ it teaches you both the science and history of what you’re looking at. How far away is that star? How deep is that crater on the Moon? What comet caused this meteor shower? It’s like having an astronomer as your best friend… One that’s with you every night!”
For a preview of the book, use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon.com.
How did the Universe begin and evolve? How did life start on Earth? These questions are discussed in a new book, “Cosmic Heritage — Evolution from the Big Bang to Conscious Life.” Thanks to the folks at Springer Astronomy, we have 10 copies of this engaging book to give away! Just send us an email with “Shaver Book” in the subject line and Fraser will randomly choose 10 winners. Deadline for the contest is Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 at 1200 GMT. The contest is open to anyone around the world.
This book follows the evolutionary trail all the way from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to conscious life today. It is an accessible introductory book written for the interested layperson – anyone interested in the ‘big picture’ coming from modern science. It covers a wide range of topics including the origin and evolution of our universe, the nature and origin of life, the evolution of life including questions of birth and death, the evolution of cognition, the nature of consciousness, the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the future of the universe. The book is written in a narrative style, as these topics are all parts of a single story. It concludes with a discussion on the nature and future of science.
Universe Today: You’ve been really busy, with writing books, filming two television series and DVDs. Do you have time to do research in particle physics as well?
Brian Cox: Well, I must say I’ve been a bit restricted over the past couple of years in how much research I’ve done. I’m still attached to the experiment at CERN, but it’s just one of those things! In many ways it’s a regret because I would love to be there full time at the moment because it is so genuinely exciting. We’re making serious progress and we’re going to discover something like the Higgs particle, I would guess, within the next 12 months.
But then again, you can’t do everything and it’s a common regret amongst academics, actually, that that as they get older, they get taken away from the cutting-edge of research if they’re not careful! But I suppose it is not a bad way to be taken away from the cutting edge, to make TV programs and push this agenda that I have to make science more relevant and popular.
UT : Absolutely! Outreach and educating the public is very important, especially in the area of research you are in. I would guess a majority of the general public are not exceptionally well-versed in particle physics.
Cox: Well, Carl Sagan is a great hero of mine and he used to say it is really about teaching people the scientific method – or actually providing the understanding and appreciation of what science is. We look at these questions, such as what happened just after the Universe began, or why the particles in the Universe have mass – they are very esoteric questions.
But the fact that we’ve been able build some reasonable theories about the how old universe is — and we have a number 13.73 ± 0.12 billion years old, quite a precise number — so the question of showing how you get to those quite remarkable conclusions is very important. When you look at what we might call more socially-important subjects – for example how to respond to global warming, or what should be our policy for vaccinating the population against disease, or how should we produce energy in the future, and if you understand what the scientific method is and that it is apolitical and a-religious and it is a-everything and there is no agenda there, and is just pure way of looking of universe, that’s the important thing for society to understand.
“Wonders of the Universe” is a book about the television series. Traditionally these books are quite ‘coffee table,’ image-heavy books. The filming of the series took longer than we anticipated, so actually the book got written relatively quickly because I had time to sit down and really just write about the physics. Although it is tied with the television series, it does go quite a lot deeper in many areas. I’m quite pleased about that. So it’s more than just snapshots of my view of the physics of the TV series.
I should say also, some parts of it are in the form of a diary of what it was like filming the TV series. There are always some things you do and places you go that have quite an impact on you. And I tend to take a lot of pictures so many of the photographs in the book are mine. So, it is written on two levels: It is a much deeper view of the physics of the television series, but secondly it is a diary of the experience of filming the series and going to those places.
(Editor’s note, Cox is also just finishing a book on quantum mechanics, so look for that in the near future)
Brian Cox, while filming a BBC series in the Sahara. Image courtesy Brian Cox
UT : What were some of your best experiences while filming ‘Wonders?’
Cox: One thing that, well, I wouldn’t say enjoyed filming, because it was quite nerve-wracking – but something that really worked was the prison demolition sequence in Rio. We used it as an analog for a collapsing star, a star at the end of its life that has run out of fuel and it collapses under its own gravity. It does that in a matter of seconds, on the same timescale as a building collapses when you detonate it.
Wandering around a building that is full of live dynamite and explosives is not very relaxing! It was all wired up and ready to go. But when we blew it up, and I thought it really worked well, and I enjoyed it a lot, actually as a television piece.
The ambition of the series is to try and get away from using too many graphics, if possible. You obviously have to use some graphics because we are talking about quite esoteric concepts, but we tried to put these things ‘on Earth’, by using real physical things to talk about the processes. What we did, we went inwards into the prison and at each layer we said, here’s where the hydrogen fuses to helium, and here’s the shell where helium goes to carbon and oxygen, and another shell all the way down to iron at the center of the stars. That’s the way stars are built, so we used this layered prison to illustrate that and then collapse it. That’s a good example of what the ambition of the series was.
UT : You’ve been called a rock star in the physics and astronomy field but in actuality you did play in a rock band before returning to science. What prompted that shift in your career?
Cox: I always wanted to be a physicist or astronomer from as far back as I can remember, that was always my thing when I was growing up. I got distracted when I was in my teens, or interested I should say, in music and being in a band. The opportunity came to join a band that was formed by an ex-member of Thin Lizard, a big rock band in the UK, and the States as well, so I did that. We made two albums; we toured with lots of people. That band split up and I went to university and then joined another band as a side line, and that band got successful as well. That was two accidents, really! It was a temporary detour rather than a switch, because I always wanted to do physics.
UT : Thanks for taking the time to talk with us on Universe Today – we appreciate all the work you do in making science more accessible so everyone can better appreciate and understand how it impacts our lives.
Within our own lives, one of the most powerful forces is that of the Sun. Directly or indirectly, it provides all of the energy we use on a daily basis. Yet this mass of incandescent plasma is often a mere afterthought. But not to be forgotten, writer for Astronomy magazine, Bob Berman makes the Sun the focus of a new book, The Sun’s Heartheat which explores how our parent star affects our lives in ways more direct than we might expect. The book is due to be released July 13th, but I got a review copy to tell everyone about.
The book is a short read clocking in at a quick 20 chapters. Roughly the first third of them is a brief history of solar astronomy. Most of this is concentrated on the history of observations of sunspots. It goes through the initial discoveries, the waxing and waning of popularity of sunspots thanks to the Maunder minimum, and Schwabe’s discovery of the cycles.
Once that’s ironed out, we get to what I consider to be the main theme of the book: How does the Sun affect us here on Earth? The first topics addressed are rather germane: The sun brings life, but too much of it can kill you. But after that, the topics are a bit more interesting. There’s a fantastic chapter on the importance of getting adequate supplies of vitamin D which your body produces naturally from exposure to the Sun. Another chapter deals with the way the Sun doesn’t affect us: Astrologically. The book discusses our ability to see colors and the impressiveness of total solar eclipses and auroras.
The second to last chapter covers just how much peril we face from a large coronal mass ejection. I was familiar with nearly everything in the book, including this chapter, but I think this chapter was my favorite. Sadly, most people are disinterested in science, but more than any other, this one was tangible enough to be rather alarming.
It closes with a preview of the future Sun, describing how its slow increase in brightness will make life on Earth unfavorable in a billion years or so and how it will eventually expand into a red giant.
If you’re an experienced astronomy enthusiast, this book will likely offer little new information on the Sun itself, although it does have lots of good backstories on some of the discoveries and those involved. It is engaging thanks to a friendly tone, even if Berman does have an odd fascination with anachronisms (17th century HMO’s?). The book lacked several of the deeper topics that I feel could have been more inviting for advanced readers such as a more thorough description of our knowledge of the innards of the Sun thanks to helioseismology. I suspect this is because it didn’t relate strongly enough to the main thesis aside from a general, how the Sun works which doesn’t focus on how it affects us.
But if you know a young astronomer, or someone older just getting into the field, or someone that’s stared only at deep sky objects and never thought much about the closest star to home, this book would likely be of some interest.
Dan Linehan's recent offering entitled "Burt Rutan's Race to Space" is a concise, yet detailed, accounting of how one man revolutionized air and space travel. Photo Credit: Zenith Press
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Voyager, Proteus and SpaceShipOne have become aerospace legends. As has the man who established them all – Burt Rutan. Zenith Press has released a chronicle of the man and his machines entitled Burt Rutan’s Race to Space: The Magician of Mojave and His Flying Innovations. The book provides a chronicle of all the air and spacecraft that have soared off of Rutan’s blueprints and into reality.
The book’s first main segment is a large section which is essentially a catalog of the numerous craft that Rutan has produced over the decades. Many of the flying machines have their unique characteristics highlighted within the 160 pages of this book. Fear not, this tome is wallpapered with images – most of which are color (175 color images to 55 black and white).
SpaceShipOne now hangs in the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. - between the Spirit of St. Louis and the Bell X-1. Photo Credit: Scaled Composites
Some of the most interesting of these images are not the glossy stills of air or spacecraft in action but rather the simple drawings that are done by the man himself. These sketches, some little more than cartoons others just simplistic line-drawings, highlight the genius that is Rutan and provide an insight into how his mind works.
The nature of the book changes somewhat when one reaches the chapter entitled, “The Scaled Composites Years.” From this point on, the book’s focus narrows to concentrate on Rutan’s X-PRIZE efforts – and beyond.
Rutan's dreams of flight started at an early age. He was a child when he first began crafting airplanes out of wood. Photo Credit: Virgin Galactic
The book was written by Dan Linehan and is his second detailing the efforts of Rutan and Scaled Composites (the first was SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History). In short, the freelance writer is steeped in all things Rutan. Whereas his first work on the subject covered the history-making flight of SpaceShipOne, this effort is a general overview of Rutan and his legacy. But be forewarned, there are many projects that span the entire realm of aerospace that Rutan and company have been involved with that might surprise you.
Given that the Mojave “magician” has retired recently – this book is timely, enjoyable and acts as a wonderful window into the mind of the man that has revolutionized flight. SpaceShipTwo continues to successfully complete test after test – making Burt Rutan’s Race to Space a primer for things to come. The book retails for $30, and it is well-worth the price and will be a welcome addition to any space buff’s collection.
SpaceShipTwo being carried underneath White Knight Two is currently being tested in preparation to send average citizens into suborbital space. Photo Credit: Virgin Galactic
What are the top 100 discoveries in the history of astronomy? In his book, “Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries,” noted astronomy journalist Govert Schilling tells the story of 400 years of telescopic astronomy. He looks at the most important discoveries since the invention of the telescope, highlighting how astronomers discovered new planets, mapped nebulae, determined the distances to stars, unraveled the structure of the Milky Way, and discovered the expansion of the universe, among other things. And, as telescopes became bigger and more powerful, astronomers delved deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos. It is a beautiful book filled with marvelous images and Schilling’s style of captivating storytelling.
Would you like to have a copy of your very own? Thanks to Springer, and Jeff Rutherford Media Relations, Universe Today has 10 copies of this book to give away! Just send an email to [email protected] with the words “Schilling’s Atlas” in the subject line by Monday, June 13th at 12 Noon PDT to be eligible, and Fraser will randomly pick the winners.
Editor’s note: We all want to explore other worlds in our solar system, but perhaps you haven’t considered the bizarre weather you’d encounter — from the blistering hurricane-force winds of Venus to the gentle methane rain showers of Saturn’s giant moon Titan. Science journalist Michael Carroll has written a guest post for Universe Today which provides peek at the subject matter for his new book, “Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds.”
It’s been a dramatic year for weather on Earth. Blizzards have blanketed the east coast, crippling traffic and power grids. Cyclone Tasha drenched Queensland, Australia as rainfall swelled the mighty Mississippi, flooding the southern US. Eastern Europe and Asia broke high temperature records. But despite these meteorological theatrics, the Earth’s conditions are a calm echo of the weather on other worlds in our solar system.
Take our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus. Nearly a twin of Earth in size, Venus displays truly alien weather. The hurricane-force Venusian winds are ruled not by water (as on Earth), but by battery acid. Sunlight tears carbon dioxide molecules (CO2) apart in a process called photodissociation. Leftover bits of molecules frantically try to combine with sulfur and water to become chemically stable, resulting acid hazes. Temperatures soar to 900ºF at the surface, where air is as dense as the Earthly oceans at a depth of X feet.
Venus is the poster child of comparative planetology, the study of other planets to help us understand our own. Earth’s simmering sibling has taught us about greenhouse gases, and gave us an even more immediate cautionary tale in 1978. The Pioneer Venus orbiter discovered that Venus naturally generates chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in its atmosphere. These CFCs were tearing holes in the planet’s ozone. At the same time, a wide variety of industries were preparing to use CFCs in insecticides, spray paints, and other aerosol products. Venus presented us with a warning that may have averted a planet-wide crisis.
In the same way, Mars has provided insights into long-term climate change. Its weather is a simplified version of our own. Locked within its rocks and polar caps lie records of changing climate over eons.
But fans of really extreme weather must venture further out, to the outer planets. Jupiter and Saturn are giant balls of gas with no solid surface, and are known as the “gas giants.” They are truly gigantic: over a thousand Earths could fit within Jupiter itself.
The skies of Jupiter and Saturn are dominated by hydrogen and helium, the ancient building blocks of the solar system. Ammonia mixes in to produce a rich brew of complex chemistry, painting the clouds of Jupiter and Saturn in tans and grays. Lightning bolts sizzle through the clouds, powerful enough to electrify a small city for weeks. Ammonia forms rain and snow in the frigid skies. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a centuries-old cyclone large enough to swallow three Earths. Saturn has its own bizarre storms: a vast hexagon-shaped trough of clouds races across the northern hemisphere. Over the south pole, a vast whirlpool gazes from concentric clouds like a Cyclops.
Beyond Jupiter and Saturn lie the “ice giants”, Uranus and Neptune. These behemoths host atmospheres of poisonous brews chilled to cryogenic temperatures. Methane tints Uranus and Neptune blue. Neptune’s clear air reveals a teal cloud deck. Hydrocarbon hazes tinge Uranus to a paler shade of blue-green. Neptune’s clear air is somewhat of a mystery to scientists. This may be because cloud-forming particles can’t stay airborne long enough to become visible clouds. Some scientists propose that Neptune’s abundant methane rains may condense so rapidly that within a few seconds tiny methane raindrops swell to something the size of a beachball. There are no clouds adrift, because methane rains out of the atmosphere too quickly.
One of the strangest cases of bizarre weather comes to us from Neptune’s moon Triton. Triton’s meager nitrogen air is tied to the freezing and thawing of polar ices, also composed of nitrogen. Triton’s entire atmosphere collapses twice a year, when it’s winter on one of the poles. At that time of year, all of Triton’s air migrates to the winter pole, where it freezes to the ground. The moon only has “weather” during the spring and fall; its atmosphere exists only during those seasons.
So, the next time you contemplate complaining about the heat, think of Venus. And if it’s blizzards you worry about, find comfort in Triton: at least our atmosphere doesn’t disappear in winter!
Back in 2009, I was given an odd book. It was the Universe Verse: Book One. In it, the author illustrates the formation of the universe, from the Big Bang, to the formation of stars and galaxies in rich detail and painstaking attention to the tiniest of scientific facts. And to top it off, it’s all done in rhyme as if Carl Sagan met Dr. Seuss. But as the title indicates, it was just the first of the series. In total, the author, James Lu Dunbar, is planning three books and at long last, the second in the Universe Verse trilogy is ready for release. And we’ve got a sneak peek!
The previous book (available to preview on the author’s website) ended with the formation of heavy atoms in the cores of stars and supernovae. “It’s Alive!” begins with the formation of planets from these elements. It explains the formation of primordial oceans and the atmosphere and introduces abiogenesis. It takes the reader through the fundamentals of random mutations leading to natural selection, formation of amino acids, and biodiversity.
This chapter in the saga leaves off with life still quite simple, still at the bacterial level, but with hints at what it will become (the province of the next book). As with the previous book, this one is lavishly illustrated, but unlike its predecessor, it’s in color. This was all thanks to a series of pledges James received to continue his project, netting him six times more than the amount requested!
Like the last book, this one can be previewed free online, but to go even further, James is releasing the book as a free eBook. All you have to do is send him an Email (address on his website) for a high resolution .pdf copy! He encourages anyone interested to request it since “Everyone, especially children, should have the opportunity to read this story.” For even more behind the scenes with this book, James chronicled the making of the book, complete with rough draft pages on his blog.
For those interested in purchasing the book, it will available for purchase in paperback on April 3rd of this year. Preorders are available here.
