Prologue

Everyone knows that Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon, but did you know that he once had a strange dream, or that he learned to fly when he was a kid? If you want to know these kinds of facts, then read this biography.

A little baby named Neil Armstrong was born on August 15, 1930 in his grandparents' house. When Neil was a young boy, he had the strangest dream: If he held his breath, he would float up in the air. Neil did not like his dream because in reality he could not go anywhere.

When Neil was six years old, he took his first airplane ride. The airplane's nickname was the Tin Goose. When he was 14, he began taking flying lessons, and received his pilot's license when he was just 16. In school, Neil played the horn, and went to Eagle Scouts. He was shy, and made friends carefully.

Neil received a scholarship to Purdue University. When he told his mother, she was so surprised that she dropped a can of preserves and broke her toe. Neil married a woman named Janet Shearon, and they had three children. (Sadly, one of the children died in 1962.)

Neil flew test flights in the Army-- to become an astronaut he had practice more with an airplane first. He trained at the Manned Space Center, and was finally chosen to go into space in 1966. In 1969, he became the first person to walk on the moon. This was his famous quote: “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

When he returned to Earth, the space capsule landed in the ocean in a splashdown, and there was a big parade to welcome Neil and his fellow astronauts home. Neil Armstrong, the boy who dreamed of flying, was now a famous hero!

Bredeson C. Neil Armstrong: A Space Biography. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow; 1998.

Brown D. One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong. Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 1998.

Kramer B. Neil Armstrong: Meet the Famous Astronaut. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow; 2003.