The Diary of a Space Traveller and other Stories


Book Description

It all began with the fall of a meteorite and the crater it made. In its centre was a red notebook, sticking out of the ground—the first (or was it really the last?) of Professor Shonku’s diaries. Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, eccentric genius and scientist, disappeared without a trace after he shot off into space in a rocket from his backyard in Giridih, accompanied by his loyal but not-toointelligent servant Prahlad, his cat Newton, and Bidhushekhar, his robot with an attitude. What has become of the professor? Has he decided to stay on in Mars, his original destination? Or has he found his way to some other planet and is living there with strange companions? His last diary tells an incredible story . . . Other diaries unearthed from his abandoned laboratory reveal stranger and even more exciting adventures involving a ferocious sadhu, a revengeful mummy and a mad scientist in Norway who turns famous men into six-inch statues. Exciting, imaginative and funny, the stories in this collection capture the sheer magic of Ray’s lucid language, elegant style, graphic descriptions and absurd humour. The indomitable Professor Shonku has returned, to win himself over a whole new band of followers!




X-15 Diary


Book Description

Built of titanium and a chrome-nickel alloy known as Inconel X, the X-15 was the fastest plane ever built, streaking through the lower reaches of outer space even before the first space capsules reached orbit. First tested in 1959, the X-15 proved to be a crucial testing ground for the astronauts and hardware in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and even the Space Shuttle programs. ø The dramatic tale of the golden age of this experimental plane comes vividly to life through the writing of the celebrated reporter Richard Tregaskis, who spent time with the pilots, engineers, and other key personnel involved in the project. We learn of the years of planning and design, devastating onboard explosions, exhilarating triumphs, and, above all, the personal and professional sacrifices that paved the way for the enduring legacy of the blisteringly fast X-15 rocket plane.




Navigating the Stars


Book Description

2019 PRISM Award Winner! “The answer is no, Lyra,” my mother utters her favorite—I swear—phrase. No means I have to travel with them to another planet—again. No means leaving all my friends fifty years in the past. Thanks, Einstein. Seventeen-year-old Lyra Daniels can’t truly blame Einstein or her parents for their impending move across the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s all due to the invention of the Q-net, which made traveling the vast distances in space possible—with one big caveat: the time dilation. But that never stopped Lyra's ancestors from exploring the Milky Way, searching for resources and exoplanets to colonize. What they didn’t expect to find is life-sized terracotta Warriors buried on twenty-one different exoplanets. ... Make that twenty-two. As the Galaxy’s leading experts on the Warriors, Lyra's parents are thrilled by the new discovery, sending them—and her—fifty years into the future. Her social life in ruins, she fills her lonely days by illegally worming into the Q-net. The only person close to her age is the annoyingly irresistible security officer who threatens to throw her into the brig. After the planet they just left goes silent—meaning no communications from them at all—security has bigger problems to deal with than Lyra, especially when vital data files go missing. But that's just the beginning, because they’re not as alone as they thought on their new planet... and suddenly time isn't the only thing working against them.




The Star Diaries


Book Description

@Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride. Line drawings by the Author. Translated by Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book@@




Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space


Book Description

Blast off with this new edition in the first book in the best selling Professor Astro Cat series! Featuring updated details about how rockets work, recent missions to Mars, space junk, and black holes. “Conducted by a cat in a retro-futuristic space suit, this tour of the solar system and beyond earns style points for both its illustrations and its selection of “Factoroids.” -Kirkus Reviews "Cute characters (such as the titular Professor Astro Cat and his assistant Astro Mouse) give a humorous, conversational tone to this nonfiction book's information about space, our solar system, and changing space exploration technology. Like the text, the book's browsable layout encourages readers to keep exploring. Overall, a great book to nurture interest in and wonder at the infinite possibilities of space." -The Horn Book "Both modern in its scientific spirit and with a sensibility modeled after the delightful mid-century children’s books from the Golden Age of space exploration, it tickles young readers - as well as their space-enchanted parents - into precisely that “palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos.” -Brain Pickings Professor Astro Cat is the smartest cat in the alley. He's got a degree in just about every discipline under the sun! Speaking of the sun, he happens to be specialist on that too, and Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space will tell you everything that there could be to know about our star, our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, our universe, and many more new insights into the ever-developing science of space and the outer reaches of the universe! The professor's made sure of that; he's a fastidious little feline! Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space also explores topics such as gravity, extraterrestrial life, time, and many other fascinating subjects that will take you and your children on a journey to the very frontiers of space!




Everything Awesome About Space and Other Galactic Facts!


Book Description

Blast off into outer space with this ultimate, 128-page book about everything you ever wanted to know about the universe, jam-packed with fun facts, jokes, comics, and more! Did you know that the surface of the sun is hot enough to make diamonds boil? Or that one year on Neptune is 165 Earth years? Or that space is thought to smell like... burnt steak?? Find out all this and more, in this comprehensive, hilarious outer space adventure from Mike Lowery!Perfect for fans of Dog Man who love nonfiction, this is the definitive, go-to book about everything AWESOME you EVER wanted to know about all things outer space Uncover a wealth of weird, wacky, and wild facts about our universe, from planets to supernovas to space travel and everything in-between, told in Mike Lowery's signature, acclaimed comic style with bright and energetic artwork, fresh framing devices, and hilarious jokes. This is the go-to book for space enthusiasts that kids will put in their backpacks and obsess over, bridging the gap between encyclopedic nonfiction content and lighter picture book fare, filling the need with a one-stop shop for the legions of 7-10 year olds who want to know absolutely everything there is to know about space.This book joins Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts and Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures in this groundbreaking nonfiction series, covering the topics that kids love with a fresh and one-of-a-kind graphic novel approach. Discover the must-have, out-of-this-world guide for space fanatics, a madcap field guide full of facts and humor, and learn everything you ever wanted to know about outer space!




If I Were an Astronaut


Book Description

Discusses activities astronauts do while they're in space.




Puffin Classics


Book Description

Celebrating 100 years of Satyajit Ray A classic keepsake edition, featuring 12 fascinating stories by a master storyteller Featuring Ray's original artwork Another Dozen Stories brings to you the magical, bizarre, spooky and sometimes astonishing worlds created by Satyajit Ray, featuring an extraordinary bunch of characters! While 'The McKenzie Fruit' trails a humble man trying to leave his mark in history, 'Worthless' is a moving story about a seemingly hapless character not quite able to win the confidence of his family. Meet Professor Hijibijbij, the eccentric scientist bent on creating living replicas of peculiar creatures and follow Master Angshuman into a nail-biting and unexpected adventure on the sets of his very first film. This collection includes twelve hair-raising stories that will leave you asking for more! Translated for the very first time into English by noted translator Indrani Majumdar, this edition is a tribute to Ray's immaculate literary genius and a gift for his many fans and followers on the centenary of his birth.




The Unicorn Expedition


Book Description

Professor Shonku cannot dismiss without proof the possibility that unicorns do exist somewhere on earth. In fact, Charles Willard, a fellow scientist, claimed to have actually seen them in Tibet, but, unfortunately, died shortly afterwards. So, when Shonku learns that another expedition is starting off for Tibet, he jumps at the opportunity to trace Willard's route and find the unicorns. Tibet is just one of the exotic places Professor Shonku's exploits take him in this volume of stories. In the Sahara he comes face to face with a massive pyramid-like structure no one knew of earlier; he travels underwater in a submarine with two Japanese scientists to investigate the sudden appearance of deadly red fish that have taken to eating humans; in the caves of Bolivia he meets a primitive man who has been painting his dwelling with animal figures and strange mathematical formulae; and on a peculiar island which has appeared out of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean horrific plants suck out all his learning from his brain




The Mystery of Munroe Island


Book Description

Scintillating stories from storyteller extraodinaire, Satyajit Ray Join Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, eccentric genius and scientist, on an incredible world tour as he confronts a daring doppelgänger, undertakes an experiment to create gold, unravels the mystery of a scientist’s loss of memory and visits an unknown island to look for an amazing fruit, amongst many other escapades. Featuring the indomitable Professor Shonku and a bunch of madcap characters, these brilliantly translated stories bring alive the magic of Satyajit Ray’s imaginative world. To add more to the charm of the anthology are some of Ray’s unique illustrations. Get ready for some hair-raising fun with the weird and wonderful Professor Shonku, whose exploits have held readers spellbound for over five decades.