Gravity Will Always Pull You Down...Unless You're An Astronaut – A Child's Introduction to Gravity
Gravity Will Always Pull You Down...Unless You're an Astronaut is a fully-illustrated 40-page book for elementary school level. The book begins with a color illustration of a child jumping up and down; the text reads:
You jump up and what happens? You come back down. Why? Because of GRAVITY.
On each page there is a full color photograph or illustration, with simple text to describe the effects of gravity. Midway through the book we see a rocket take off from earth, carrying the Space Shuttle. Then we see floating astronauts. Why do astronauts float? We learn it is not due to zero gravity, but to the speed of the spaceship as it orbits the earth, balancing out the pull of earth's gravity.
The book illustrates earth's tide changes, the orbit of our moon around earth, and orbits of the planets around the sun - all due to gravity. The book returns to the child on earth, who is thankful there is gravity. Otherwise his food might float away, and she would have to be strapped into her bed.
The book ends with a simple "Short Quiz on Gravity" that reviews some of the important points.
About Lawrence Martin (The Villages, Florida Author)
Larry is a retired physician who lives in The Villages, Florida. He is author of 20 books, about half in the medical field from when he was practicing medicine. Since retirement he has turned to writing mostly fiction, for both adults and kids.
Adult works include a contemporary fiction novel Consenting Adults Only, and two Civil War-themed historical fiction works, Sherman's Mistress in Savannah and Out of Time: An Alternative Outcome to the Civil War. Before publication, The Boy Who Dreamed Mount Everest, won 2nd place in the 2016 Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Awards, category of unpublished middle grade fiction.
Larry is president of The Writers League of The Villages, which meets monthly. WLOV arranges speakers on a variety of topics related to writing, sponsors an annual book Expo for Central Florida authors, and through its website and mailing lists seeks to connect the hundreds of writers active in The Villages.
Larry's other retirement interests are golf and music. He took up ukulele after retirement and in order to better understand the instrument began writing himself explanations. The result -- of course -- a book on music theory for the ukulele, now posted online (www.lakesidepress.com/UkeSyllabus.pdf).
