Cats in Space: Animal Astronauts, Scientific Information, and Nonfiction Picturebooks

Abstract: This study examines the visual and verbal strategies used to communicate disturbing or difficult scientific information to children in four nonfiction picturebooks. Inspired by the idea of cats in space, the works under consideration demonstrate the very different formal approaches available to narrative versus expository texts in an age of alternative facts and inconvenient truths. The discussion, which explores works written in Spanish, Italian, and English, focuses on two stories about the first and only cat in space, Félicette, and two popular guides to the universe. Of the works studied, three successfully subordinate fiction to the objectives of science, while the fourth avoids painful realities by prioritizing speculative fancy over historical fact. In an era of digital gadgetry, they testify to the vitality of the picturebook as an instructional technology.