Singer Bryan Adams once wrote about the summer of ‘69, "When I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever." One major reason was that moment on July 20 when Neil Armstrong emerged from Apollo 11 and took man's first steps on the Moon. I've gathered some of the recent releases commemorating this momentous event.

In Footprints On The Moon (Candlewick Press, $16.99; ages 4-8) bestselling author Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time) takes a nostalgic look back at his time as a young lad in Britain witnessing Apollo 11's lunar landing on a scratchy black and white television 200,000 miles from the Moon's surface. Experience 1969 through the eyes of a boy who dreamed, like thousands of others, of joining Armstrong and Aldrin among the craters, driving a Moon-buggy across the Sea of Tranquility and leaving footprints that still remain.

One Small Step: Celebrating The First Men On The Moon written by Jerry Stone (Roaring Brook Press, $24.95; ages 6-10) will captivate the whole family. The book seeks to inspire "the next generation of space explorers and scientists" by taking readers inside the world of Mike (named after astronaut Michael Collins, who stayed behind on the ship during the Moonwalk). Mike's mom is a NASA scientist and his grandfather works in Mission Control on July 20, 1969. I marveled at how this hard cover book perfectly captures the look and feel of an actual scrapbook with raised photos, envelopes to open, flaps to flip and a reprint of the New York Times cover with the headline "Men Walk on Moon." The book is also packed with Moonwalk memorabilia like a replica souvenir medallion, a launch pass and a moving-image lenticular of a rocket taking off – plus timelines, Moon stats and more. It makes a readable, must-have keepsake for lunar enthusiasts.

In One Small Step (Aladdin Paperbacks, $8.99; ages 8-14) a 13-year-old boy heads off to the moon on a secret mission in the summer of 1969. While the premise may seemed far-fetched, this action-packed adventure from P.B. Kerr is anything but! Meet Scott MacLeod, who is recruited by NASA to man a test flight along with a crew of chimps before the first lunar landing. Something is amiss as Scott's training gets under way, and it could affect his mission. Find out how Scott manages his journey to the Moon aboard Caliban 11 and how courage plays an important role in his experience of a lifetime. A helpful reading group guide is included in the trade paperback.

Long before The Amazing Race, another type of race kept people glued to their televisions …T-Minus: The Race To The Moon (Aladdin Paperbacks, www.simonsayskids.com, $12.99; ages 8-12), written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon asks, "What happens when you point two global superpowers, dozens of daring pilots and thousands of engineers and scientists at the night sky and say "Go!"? Answer: "A space race!" This story, told in graphic novel form, brings you into the daily lives of people who worked behind the scenes as the race to reach the moon and make history took place around the world.

Back when you could get six postcards for a quarter, Miroslav Sasek wrote and illustrated what is now the classic, This Is The Way To The Moon (Universe Publishing, www.rizzoliusa.com, $17.95; ages 8-80). Originally published in 1963 as This Is Cape Canaveral and then re-released as This Is Cape Kennedy in 1964, Sasek's whimsical words and illustrations recall a bygone era when nothing related to interplanetary traveled was viewed as commonplace. Hotels and businesses near the famous Cocoa Beach and Cape Kennedy captured the spirit of outer space with names like Astrocraft Motel and Missile Taxi, and Alan Shepard, Jr. became the first man in space. Filled with fascinating facts, the book is an inimitable introduction to the rise of the American space program, combining lots of details with Sasek's subtle humor. One interesting thing I learned was that back in 1973 residents successfully petitioned to have Cape Kennedy once again called Cape Canaveral.

Paper Astronaut: The Paper Spacecraft Mission Manual written by Juliette Cezzar with a foreward by Buzz Aldrin (Universe Publishing, www.rizzoliusa.com, $27.50; ages 8 and up) is so much more than just a paper airplane book. From the creator of Paper Pilot and Paper Captain comes this exquisitely illustrated voyage into deep space. There are 64 pages filled with finely crafted die-cut paper models of the featured rockets, presented with clear instructions for assembly. The book also includes stunning archival photographs, colorful technical drawings and histories of 20 feats of aeronautic engineering drawn from half a century of space programs around the world. Readers will also be treated to amazing stories, fascinating facts and statistics about the universe around them, and awesome photographs of the vessels in space.