The Spacesuit: How a Seamstress Helped Put Man on the Moon

Ellie’s interest in sewing as a young child develops into a life-long passion in this true story based on the life of Eleanor Foraker. Ellie is skilled at sewing; she is dedicated to her profession and is an exemplary worker who pays special attention to the detail in her work. Recognized for her sewing skills, Ellie is invited to join a team at her company, ILC Dover, who have entered a contest to create a spacesuit that was to be worn by astronauts on the moon. Nobody believed that this team could create a spacesuit that could win the completion. But with hard work and Ellie’s attention to detail, a winning spacesuit was developed.

The Spacesuit is a fascinating story in that the author describes the construction process of the spacesuit along with all of the challenges that the team faced. True facts about the project are scattered throughout the book in highlighted “circles”. Also, the characters are of importance. There is some stereotyping here as women are seamstresses and men are engineers, but then again, this is how North America looked in the 1960’s. I think that it is interesting to see this little piece of history explored in that the reader can see that many people helped to launch Apollo 11, and that all of those people helped to make the heroes who actually walked on the moon.

The illustrations are drawn by Ariel Landy who does a wonderful job of representing the historical period in the clothing and hair styles of the characters.