David Bowie's Space Oddity: The Children's Book

The Shrine of Dig represents music that has made indelible impressions on our lives, both musically and personally. We plan to enshrine works and artists that stand out for any number of special reasons, from those glorious moments we first heard something captivating and new, through the continuous impacts of the music upon our lives. The induction ceremony involves multiple posts where we will both explore and pay tribute to the words and sounds which have been so important to us. In doing so, we share with you some music we believe is damn near infallible and absolutely worth listening to. View all

Andrew Kolb has illustrated himself right into my heart with his visual interpretation of David Bowie's classic Space Oddity. This simply put is wonderful. The children's book spin on this song seems so appropriate it's a wonder it took this long for it to happen.

The story is linear, engaging, and allows plenty of room artistic license. The only thing it is missing is animated hand claps. Thank you to David Gutowski of the music/literature blog Large Hearted Boy and How to be a Retronaut for bringing this to my attention. What I enjoy most about these illustrations is the way they enhance my own interpretation of the story. I love the idea that it was ultimately an asteroid shower that brought Major Tom down. Bravo Andrew Kolb, I look forward to reading this story to my own children someday.

Begin by pushing play on the audio link and then start the slideshow by clicking on the first image. The thumbnails will enlarge an become a slideshow which is controlled by you with your left/right arrows, so let the lyrics tell you when its time to move forward. You dig?

David Bowie: Space Oddity