2025
WISE Score
A high-stakes survival story about the time NASA had to figure out how to fit a square peg in a round hole while three men were freezing 200,000 miles from home.
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If your kid is a space nerd, this is a mandatory read. It moves away from the dry 'first we did this, then we did that' history and leans into the visceral, sweaty-palms reality of the Apollo 13 crisis.
It’s the rare educational book that actually manages to be a page-turner. It trades the glory of the moon landing for the grit of surviving an explosion in deep space, and it’s a better lesson in character and engineering because of it.
Perfect for 7- to 12-year-olds. It’s written in that accessible, fast-paced style the 'What Was' series is known for, making it a great pick for kids who prefer facts over fiction but still want a 'thriller' vibe.
It models peak teamwork and the 'successful failure' mindset. The focus is on calm problem-solving and the collective effort of thousands of people to save three lives.
While it's non-fiction, it requires a massive imaginative leap to visualize 1970s engineering and the isolation of deep space. It encourages kids to think about how they would solve problems with limited tools.
It's a historical narrative. There is real peril and descriptions of a freezing, dying spacecraft, but it's handled educationally and appropriately for the middle-grade audience.
This is a stealth STEM book. It covers orbital mechanics, chemistry (CO2 scrubbers), and history without feeling like a textbook. It's a masterclass in resilience.
Most kids know about Neil Armstrong and the 'giant leap,' but the Apollo 13 mission is arguably the more important story for building a growth mindset. This book handles the transition from a routine mission to a catastrophe with a level of detail that respects the reader's intelligence. It doesn't just say 'they fixed it'; it explains the improvisational genius required to keep three men breathing in a craft that was never designed to sustain them for that long.
What makes this entry in the series stand out is the focus on the human story behind the math. You get the rookie nerves of Fred Haise and the last-minute pressure on Jack Swigert. It’s a great companion to the 1995 movie if you want to do a family watch-and-read, though the book obviously keeps things more age-appropriate for the younger end of the spectrum.
If you have a kid who thinks history is boring because 'we already know how it ends,' use this to show them that the ending was never a guarantee. It’s a masterclass in what happens when smart people refuse to give up.
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