One Small Step (by P. B. Kerr)

In the late '60s, Scott's father is an Air Force flight trainer in Texas. He teaches Scott to fly in a private plane, but then, against the rules, also teaches him to fly fighter jets. When Scott's father is knocked out in an in-flight accident and Scott lands the plane, NASA takes notice. They have a secret program that precedes each of the manned rocket launches with a scaled down test flight using chimps. Before the moon landing, one of their highly trained chimps wigs out, and they enlist Scott to train to fly to the moon and back with two other chimps. Includes Author's Note.

OK, granted, there's a huge suspension of disbelief to get over with this book. NASA secretly sending a boy and two chimps to land on the moon before Apollo 11 has to be one of the most absurd premises ever. The author compounds this with references to possible UFOs, a mystical encounter in the last part of the story, and an Author's Note that claims much of the Apollo program is "still shrouded in secrecy" and that no one really knows when the chimp program was discontinued. Even fans of Tom Swift may have to take a deep breath before swallowing all of that.

And yet ... take the leap, and you'll find an immensely enjoyable, exciting, engrossing story, the stuff of hours of childhood fantasy. Scott and the chimps are appealing characters, and the details are as grounded in scientific and historical reality as the premise is not. Scott is a boy's boy in the '50s series-book mold: stalwart, vastly competent and levelheaded, openhearted, and calmly willing to defy adult authority to do things his way, outwitting them at every turn. This is nearly perfect summer reading -- ridiculous escapism at its purest.

Author: P. B. Kerr
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: June 1, 2008
Number of pages: 309
Hardcover price: $16.99
Read Aloud: 11
Read Alone: 11