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@penguinsters Reviewed by Vihaan - Reaching for the moon- This book is about a small girl named Valarmathi and her best friend Siva, who study in a school in Tamil Nadu. When their school announces a science fair, Valarmathi starts thinking about what she should make. She really wants to win the first prize, which would give her the opportunity to visit the ISRO launch centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. Each page of the story is linked to the Chandrayaan missions — 1, 2, and 3. The author beautifully connects Valarmathi’s experiments and struggles with the challenges faced by Indian scientists. In 2008, ISRO launched Chandrayaan 1, India’s first planetary exploration mission, and fifteen years later, Chandrayaan 3 made history with a successful soft landing on the moon. In class, Valar’s teacher announced a lesson on mountains. When Valar saw a picture of the snow-capped Pir Panjal Range, she became fascinated by snow and decided to make snow for the science fair. Along with Siva, she tried collecting “clouds,” using freezers, and experimenting with cold air — but nothing worked. Disheartened, Valar cried, but her Paati (grandmother) comforted her and said, “Even scientists don’t succeed on their first try.” This motivated Valar to keep going. The story parallels Valar’s setbacks with Chandrayaan 2’s failure and Chandrayaan 3’s ultimate success — showing that persistence leads to achievement. On the day of the science fair, Valar and Siva tried making snow with baking soda and water. Though it didn’t turn out perfect, it reminded everyone of ISRO’s journey — that every failure teaches you something new. Later, Valar saw solar panels in the school library and learned how they help keep things cool. This gave her a new idea — she made a model of a school with solar panels to show how they could keep classrooms cooler. A special note: • Valar is named after ISRO scientist N. Valarmathi (1959–2023), who gave the final countdown for Chandrayaan 3. • Siva is named after Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan, former ISRO Chairman and aerospace engineer. Continue in comment …….

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This post was published on 30th October, 2025 by Sulata on her Instagram handle "@mommyandvihaan (Sulata Mitra)". Sulata has total 217.9K followers on Instagram and has a total of 2.6K post. Sulata receives an average engagement rate of 0.89% per post on Instagram. This post has received 25 comments which are lower than the average comments that Sulata gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was lower than the average for the profile.