Astronauts for a day, just like Mae!
“Sometimes people want to tell you to act or to be a certain way. Sometimes people want to limit you because of their own imaginations” Mae Jemison, "Mae Jemison: Coming In From Outer Space." Ebony, December 1992.
This month at Book Harvest, the sky has truly been the limit. With the help of our friends at
the Museum of Life and Science, we hosted a star-studded storytime inside the StarLab in the Book Harvest Family Space.
The StarLab is an 11-foot tall and 40-foot wide dome that allows participants the experience of journeying through the solar system. There were audible "oohs" and "ahhs" as we were transported into the galaxy, passed through the milky way, and eventually safely returned back to Earth.
The book Mae Among the Stars, by Roda Ahmed, was a perfect story selection, not only because of the message that anything is possible, but also because it was astronaut Mae Jemison's birthday on October 17th.
When we asked the children in attendance what they wanted to be when they grow up, we received the following responses:
An engineer!
A soccer player!
A ballerina!
An astronaut!
Our favorite line in the book was: “If you believe it, and work hard for it, anything is possible.” This line validates the dreams of children in Durham, in North Carolina, in our nation, in our world, to infinity, and beyond. We were so excited to get the chance to be astronauts for a day, just like Mae!