(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025)
Photography – the visual medium closest to reality itself – has had an immeasurable impact on how we think and feel about our world. In Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait, Leonard spotlighted the history-making role played by photographs of Abraham Lincoln – our first media-savvy president – in sealing his legacy as a forceful wartime leader and compassionate father to the nation. Now, in Earthrise, Leonard tells the gripping story of the first color portrait of planet Earth taken from deep space and the worldwide sensation it caused, inspiring millions to join the environmental movement and millions more to reimagine their place in the cosmos.
Set amid the rollercoaster gyrations of the Cold War-era space race, Earthrise tracks NASA’s fever-pitch effort to make good on President Kennedy’s head-spinning promise to send a man to the Moon and back by the end of the 1960s–and to do so before the Soviets. The crew of Apollo 8 who snapped the Earthrise photo were also the first humans to break free of the Earth’s gravitational influence, to travel half a million miles at unimaginable speeds, and to fly within miles of another world–the Moon–as they searched for the perfect landing site for Apollo 11. Despite the tens of thousands of ways their complex mission might have gone wrong, it somehow it didn’t. More than half a century later, the photo that came to be known across the world as Earthrise continues to inspire and raise important scientific, philosophical, and ethical questions as few other pictures have.
Deeply researched and illustrated with scores of archival photographs.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
★ “The inspiring and dramatic story of how one of the most powerful photos of all time came to be . . . Provocative and thoughtful—rich in period details and timeless insights.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ “Very readable . . . A highly respected historian, writer, and speaker on children’s literature-related topics, Marcus, who grew up in the era discussed and understands its complex history, presents the Earthrise story with clarity and insight.” —Booklist, starred review
“[A] visually fascinating read . . . Using reverent prose punctuated by numerous b&w photographs with detailed captions, Marcus notes how the picture not only inspired the creation of the first Earth Day in 1970, but also ‘changed the way people understood their place in the universe.’” —Publishers Weekly
