Space: Books for Middle Grades and Young Adults

Young man alone in classroom

These books for middle grades and young adults tell stories about space from a range of perspectives. They include the memoires of an astronaut and rocket scientist, a story about a young man who is passionate about NASA, and a coming of age novel set around the events of the Challenger explosion.

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Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist

Young Sylvia Acevedo looking up at nighttime sky
By: Sylvia Acevedo
Age Level: Middle Grade
Language: Spanish

This inspiring memoir for young readers tells the story of Sylvia Acevedo, a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia's family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, her life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science.

Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut

Photo of Jose M. Hernàndez
By: José M. Hernández
Age Level: Young Adult

Product Description: Born into a family of migrant workers, toiling in the fields by the age of six, Jose M. Hernàndez dreamed of traveling through the night skies on a rocket ship. Hernández didn't speak English till he was 12, and his peers often joined gangs, or skipped school. And yet, by his twenties he was part of an elite team helping develop technology for the early detection of breast cancer. He was turned down by NASA eleven times on his long journey to donning that famous orange space suit.

The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez

Young man in a classroom alone
By: Jasminne Paulino
Age Level: 9-12, Middle Grade

Seventh grader Alex's favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos of rocket launches with his Papi and spending hours on the NASA website reading about astronauts and planets. He even dreams of going to space one day himself, and knows he'll have to study hard in order to get there.

We Dream of Space

Four young people looking up at the night sky
By: Erin Entrada Kelly
Age Level: Middle Grade

Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. The Nelson Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms.