Chris Hadfield, one of the world’s most accomplished astronauts, was scared of the dark when he was a little boy. Every night his mum and dad had to check under the bed in the wardrobe and declare his room ‘one-hundred percent alien-free’ before he would go to sleep. When sleep eventually came, he would always have his favourite dream – flying his spaceship to the moon. But one eventful day, in front of his neighbours’ TV, he actually saw real astronauts from Apollo 11 jumping up and down on the real moon. And the outer space around the moon was the darkest dark he had ever seen.

That night he turned out all the lights in his room and he was not afraid. And, in the quiet of the dark, Chris decided what he was going to be.

This is the perfect bedtime book to read to little children who are afraid of the dark like Chris once was. It will also inspire them to be who they want to be. For as Chris the astronaut says, ‘The dark is for dreams – and morning is for making dreams come true.’

Reviewed by Merle Morcom
Age guide 4+