Earthrise: The Story of the Photograph That Changed the Way We See Our Planet

Ages 10 to 14

From renowned researcher and children’s lit scholar Leonard S. Marcus comes a middle-grade nonfiction book about the astonishing photograph taken during the Apollo 8 mission that forever shifted the way we view our planet.

Gazing out the window of the Apollo 8 spacecraft on Christmas Eve, 1968, NASA astronaut Bill Anders grabbed his camera and snapped the iconic color photo of our planet rising over the lunar horizon. Not long after the crew's safe return, NASA developed Anders’s film and released “Earthrise” to the world. For the millions of viewers who first saw the photo, it was a revelation: a dramatic reminder that our home planet is a small but beautiful “blue marble” hurtling through the universe, fragile yet resilient, familiar yet strange, a sort of spacecraft in its own right for all humanity, without fixed national borders or much room for strife.

A companion to Marcus’s acclaimed Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait—a unique biography of America’s sixteenth president centered around one famous picture—Earthrise uses the same technique of telling an expansive historical story through the lens of an iconic photograph. This compact, accessible, and engaging nonfiction book includes a trove of black-and-white photos and related materials throughout, as well as an 8-page color insert.

About the Author

Leonard S. Marcus is one of the world’s leading writers about children’s books and the people who create them. His acclaimed books include Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait: The Story of a Photograph That Became an American Icon; Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing; Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; Minders of Make Believe; and The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. leonardmarcus.com