A is for Automobiles, machines on wheels.

B is for Belts turning, fuel burning, the buzz and bark of engines.

C is for Curves and crowds and cars, of course --

A century of racecars, from bare beginnings to present-day marvels, from stock cars to Formula 1, from Ford to Ferrari, caught in crackling action, in fan-friendly pictures, and in words that bounce and jounce for the fun of it....

You may never have

heard of a lightship.

Once, lightships

anchored on waters

across America,

on the oceans

and in the Great Lakes,

floating where lighthouses

could not be built.

Smaller than most ships,

but more steadfast, too,

they held their spots,

through calm and storm,

to guide sailors

toward safe waters.

In these pages

one lightship

and her crew (and cat)

again hold their place.

The crew goes

again from bow to stern,

from keel to mast,

to run their engines,

shine their lights,

and sound their horns.

They run the small ship

that guides the large ships.

They are the crew (and cat)

that work to make the ocean safe,

that hold their place,

so other ships can sail.

Come aboard!...

Simply told, grandly shown, here is the flight of Apollo 11. Here for a new generation of readers and explorers are the steady astronauts, clicking themselves into gloves and helmets, strapping themselves into sideways seats. Here are their great machines in all their detail and monumentality, the ROAR of rockets, and the silence of the Moon. Here is a story of adventure and discovery -- a story of leaving and returning during the summer of 1969, and a story of home, seen whole, from far away....