A Story Rocket to the Stars
/What is it that makes a little girl or a little boy want to learn about science? What, for example, drives a child’s curiosity about outer space, perhaps even to the point where they want to grow up to be an astronaut?
For prominent NASA astronaut Dr. Jessica Meir, watching televised broadcasts of NASAs Space Shuttle missions as a little girl inspired that interest. She watched the story of humanity venturing beyond our little planet and wanted that for herself. Television told a story, and little Jessica was able to imagine something more.
Now Dr. Meir, along with USAID Administrator Samantha Power, has helped to narrate a new story called “Grace in Space,” which will inspire countless other little girls and boys to grow curious about the universe beyond our atmosphere.
Perhaps one of them might someday head out into space as well.
“Grace in Space” was written by Syrian poet and children’s book author Obai Al-Alloush, who explained in an interview with Medium.com that his own deep love of space inspired him to write the story. “Since I was a kid,” Al-Alloush said, “I have been keen on stars and planets just like Grace.”
Al-Alloush wanted the story to be inspiring and educational, and he wanted it to be readily available— so he published it under a Creative Commons license. He understood that sharing books with a Creative Commons License extends their reach far beyond what might be possible otherwise. In fact, Al-Alloush’s choice has meant that we were able to adapt “Grace in Space” to the Bloom platform.
Bloom has a still somewhat underused feature that allows any book to become a Talking Book. So we were able to import the existing audio of Dr. Meir and Administrator Power and match that audio to the words and images of the story.
This means that children all over the world will be able use Bloom to listen to Dr. Meir and Samantha Power read “Grace in Space.” They can view the book online or download it as an ePUB or a BloomPUB. BloomPUBs can be viewed and heard on Android devices with the free Bloom Reader app. Children can even share the files with their friends!
This inspiring story is also available on the Global Digital Library, but now with Bloom’s Talking Book tool, it has been made accessible to children who might not otherwise be able to experience it. Any child who understands English will be able to listen to it being read by a real astronaut!
We hope that others will be inspired to create more talking books in their languages, and that children all over the world will encounter this and other stories and find inspiration for their own life-long adventures.
Grace in Space was created through the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development No Lost Generation Summit Tech Prize.