(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Craig Orback. When a Dutch rabbi is sent to a concentration camp, he helps a boy have a Bar Mitzvah and entrusts a tiny Torah scroll to him. The boy survives to tell the story--and to send the Torah into space with the first Israeli astronaut, who perished in the 2003 Columbia explosion. Muted color illustrations combine well with the somber text for a moving story of survival.

Reviewer: Amy Kellman

(4) 4-6 This brief, laudatory biography of Ramon does an adequate job of profiling Israel's first astronaut. Although the page design sometimes makes reading difficult, young readers will find double-page spreads about different aspects of the space program and general information about Ramon informative. The large color photographs amply illustrate the text. Reading list, timeline, websites. Ind.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman