When our kids were 6 & 12, we took a trip to a local observatory for one of their public viewing nights.
Talk about a view!
We were each brought up a very tall set of circular stairs to peek into a HUGE telescope.
What did we see?
A triple star, a galaxy "far, far away", nebula and the moons of Jupiter!
It was an awesome experience for my 12-year-old -- one of the scientists showed him a dead star -- a star that was no longer emitting light HOWEVER we could still see the star's light because it was so far away (light-years away) that to us, it still looked like it was a shining star.
He asked questions for days about what we saw and what other possibilities might exist.
And he started reading tons of books about space.
He's now a teenager who follows SpaceX launches, listens to Neil deGrasse Tyson and is heading to college to study engineering physics next year.
You just never know what's going to spark your child's interest and impact their life.
Many of us were raised at a time when space travel was new and exciting!
You know, back when Pluto was still a planet :)
So to encourage this continued interest and wonder with future generations, our newest book list includes some out-of-this-world reads about space!