Messages on the Moon with Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate

Did you know that the Apollo 11 astronauts left a small disc on the moon filled with goodwill messages from around the globe?  Imagine attending a symposium and leaving inspired to write a children’s picture book! That’s exactly what happened to Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate, a business professor and nonprofit founder, who turned her fascination with the Apollo moon landing into a captivating picture book for young readers. This episode of Adventures in Learning takes you through her incredible journey, from the symposium that started it all to the creation of a book that emphasizes the goodwill messages left on the moon. You’ll hear about the unique international unity symbolized in her work, brought to life with authentic NASA images and global reactions, making history accessible and exciting for kids.

Have you ever wondered about the behind-the-scenes process of creating a picture book? Dr. Jill shares the transformation from an initial draft to a compelling narrative that focuses on the human experience during the Apollo moon landing. Listen to fascinating tidbits, like the story of the astronauts almost forgetting to leave the commemorative disc on the moon! Dr. Jill also talks about the collaborative yet often remote relationship with her illustrator and the delightful moment when she saw the final illustrated book, cleverly connecting a historic event to today’s young readers through a museum setting.

📚 But the episode doesn’t stop with just one book! Discover how picture books can be powerful educational tools, even at the college level. Dr. Jill explains how she uses books like "What Do You Do with an Idea?" to teach business concepts in a way that's both engaging and easy to grasp. Learn about her nonprofit’s partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which champions early literacy by providing free books to children. Wrapping up, Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate reflects on the joy she finds in learning, travel, and making a positive impact, leaving you inspired to celebrate the Apollo moon landing anniversary and the joy of lifelong learning.

Transcript

00:00 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
There we go. So how did a business professor who runs her own nonprofit Raising Readers for the Heartland come to write a beautiful picture book about messages from the moon? Join me on today's Adventures in Learning podcast as we talk to Dr Jill Friestad-Tate, who is the author of this amazing picture book, just in time for the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Jill, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I am so glad to have you, so you know what. Let's start with that question. Normally, I start by asking you know, describe your adventures in learning. But I think what I just said pretty much encapsules describe your adventures in learning. How did you come to write this book? What led to you being in this place today? 

00:49 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Perfect question. I often wonder that myself. I have been in education for over 30 years and I have done a lot of technical writing as I work toward my dissertation kind of put the creative side of my life to the side to do that research. When I had my children, I started reading, of course, to them, and lots of children's books and started to have ideas by creative side, from when I used to write poetry and stories as a child kind of came flooding back and I continued to join a writer's group and do all those types of things. 

01:25
And then in the meantime I started working full time at a college and that college has a Celebrate Innovation Week every year and they bring in guest speakers. A lot of them are astronauts, a lot of them are people who are just experts in their fields, and so we had a group of people that were astronauts and people that had studied about the astronauts, and a gentleman by the name of Pierre Roman wrote this beautiful book called we Came in Peace for All Mankind, and he was speaking to students at my college and was talking about this disc that was placed on the moon and it had goodwill messages and that it was the only time in history that the world came together to celebrate and become excited about something the only time prior to that and the only time since that. And and I thought, oh my goodness, this should be a children's book, like everyone should know this story. And so I did research using his book. A lot of other research we can talk about that more later, but to write the children's book, that's really how it came to be? 

02:40 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
That's incredible, and I have to ask because I am so intrigued right now. 

02:50 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
That's incredible and I have to ask, because I am so intrigued right now where are you that you get these amazing professional developments and symposiums with astronauts? But it's a place where my provost is also a writer and he has a publishing company and his job is for the college to bring in people for this, celebrate Innovation. That was his idea to start this wonderful symposium year. People from all over, all different kind of genres and different, you know, types of work and celebrities, all different kinds of people to the college to talk to students, all free, to the students and community Amazing. 

03:35 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
How very cool, and I love the fact that attending that symposium sparked curiosity in you, which led to this beautiful book. I'm wondering would you like to show us a couple of your favorite pages and maybe read a little bit before we go deeper? 

03:52 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Absolutely so. This is the cover of the book, and I'm going to read you the first page, because it kind of lays the groundwork for what the book is about, and then I'll read some of the other and this, and throughout the book there are pictures actually from NASA. So you have the astronauts, them doing the experiments here on earth, and then, of course, the takeoff, the liftoff, and they have these from NASA that are public availability so that we can, that are in the public domain, that we can use those, and so I wanted to incorporate things that are real in the book. It's a nonfiction book, and so it starts with a couple of kids going through a museum, but it starts this way In July of 1969, people all over the world watched with anticipation. 

04:41
No one had ever walked on the moon. In fact, no one in history had ever walked on the moon. In fact, no one in history had successfully landed on the moon. The astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission hoped to do both, and so that was kind of the premise for starting the story. And then we go on to talk about, of course, the mission itself, but, more importantly, the creation of the disk, and it's a silicone disc that was created, like I said, with the goodwill messages from all over the world, and so there was a situation where they had to create the disc. It was only created a few weeks before because everyone continued to send goodwill messages and they had so many additional messages sent that they said we have to recreate the disk. So a few days before liftoff they recreated it again and barely had it to the rocket to take off and go to the moon. So two weeks before liftoff, more messages were sent to NASA and the disk had to be remade. The final disk was finished just five days before flying to the moon. So they lifted off on July 16th and went to the moon and the book then goes into how people around the world reacted and there are different vignettes of people in Italy, in Egypt and out to sea in Poland and how they responded to the moon landing All those documented responses. 

06:18
So they're not things I made up. They are actually reported sightings of people, their responses, their celebrations around the world, and I wanted children to know that people did celebrate and they thought it was a really great thing. Sometimes we get mixed messages today about how the world views the United States and our interaction with other places, and I thought it was really important to highlight a time when the world did come together, they did celebrate together, they honored the achievements of other countries together, and so I thought that was a really important thing in today's kind of environment that we're in. 

06:53 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So I have a question then as you were doing your research, did you get to look at the different messages that people sent, and are there any that stand out to you from that that sort of captured your imagination? 

07:06 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Yeah, in fact there are. I put a few of them in the back of the book because I thought it was so important. Initially and this is part of the process of writing a book I was going to put a map with the countries and show where they are, but all that wouldn't fit in the small picture book, so I put the messages of several different countries in there so people could see the examples. There also is a PDF that is available. So if you're interested in seeing that full PDF, they can send me an email and certainly I will send that to them. 

07:40
It's from NASA, but it talks about every and has included in it every country that sent the goodwill message and the message that they sent. That would be on that still content. 

07:51 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Oh, that's very cool. Do you want to read one of the messages to us? 

07:59 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Sure, this is from Brazil, and DaCosta Silva was the president at that time, and he says, in rejoicing together with the government and the people of the United States of America for the event of the century I pray God that this brilliant achievement of science remains always the service of peace and of mankind. And so they were very much in tune with the idea that this helps everyone and it was a peaceful mission. It wasn't a let's go control another area, which a lot of people think about wars and other things and the world supported the idea that it was a peaceful mission, and that's what came through in a lot of their messages. 

08:40 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, that makes sense. 

08:53 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Well, that makes sense Having just watched Oppenheimer, you know I'm realizing that that whole era was so much focused on the Cold War and the arms race that this had to have been really refreshing Russia and China. 

09:02
That did not get to hear about it because their governments restricted what kind of media the radio, television for those who had it was allowed to kind of put out to the public. But I have a story in there about the US astronauts took the medals of the Russian cosmonauts who were the first in space to the moon with them and the Russians had heard about that, and so people unjammed their radios so they could listen to the moon landing and they were so proud because they knew that Russia also was being honored at the same time because of their contributions to the space race. So it wasn't that they were forgotten and people actually talked about that story as well, which I wanted to make sure. I highlighted there that some people didn't know and some people knew about it but had to kind of circumvent or go around you know the idea of listening to it on their own public radio. They had to break in and unjam their radio station to hear it. 

10:07 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Interesting. I didn't know that, so it sounds like a lot of research went into this book. You alluded to the book that you used as sort of your primary source, but what else did you use to research this? 

10:21 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Oh, hundreds of articles. And the best part of the research was when I mentioned my writer's group earlier. I have a lady in my writer's group and she I was telling her about this draft. You know you, always when you go to a writer's group you bring your first draft and people kind of pick it apart, tell you what you can improve this and that. 

10:40
And after she had read my first draft, she said I was 16 when they landed on the moon and she said I kept every article that was published in the paper and it's in my attic. Wow. So she said, would you like to have them? And I said, of course I would love to have them, you know, and use them. And so he gave me all a whole stack, literally, and she had marked them all that all had the dates on them. They they were in a plastic baggie in perfect mint condition from when she had put them there all those years ago. What an amazing gift. Yes, it was an amazing gift. 

11:26
And it was also like in anything you do in life you have to figure out what's your angle on it. What's for a writer it's, what's your story? What is it you're trying to say in the messaging you're getting? And at the time when I wrote my first draft, it was much more about information about the disc, because that was what drew my attention, that I wanted to share that story. And as I read through all of the you know AP articles that were published, it became really apparent that I wanted to connect how people around the world reacted, and it really was about the world coming together, not just in that silicone disc but in the media coverage, in their celebrations and how they watched the event. I mean, it was just really a lot of fun, and so all of that popped out through those articles. 

12:13
But it also included things like the struggle, the worry of, you know, houston, the control center, that they were worried, that they were not going to, you know, be successful, and what would happen if the world is watching, you know, and it talked a lot about that and there was I'll try to find it in here that I could show you a brief picture that the control tower was uncertain, that they would make it okay, and there's an image showing the worried face. And these are things that were again from the research, of things they said, and one of the best things was that they almost forgot to leave the disk on the moon. They, you know, had to pick up moon rocks and do all these experiments, and they talked to the president and they did all these things while they were on the surface of the moon, which is only about two and a half hours, which is only about two and a half hours. And then, as they're getting back on, the control center said to you know, the alarm system, did you remember to leave the pouch with the disc and they're like oh yeah, gotta do that. 

13:24
That's my words, but it has verbatim the you know dialogue in the book. So all of that is actual conversation, and then they did leave it in the end. But it's the whole threading of all of that is actual conversation, and then they did leave it in the end. But it's the whole threading of all of that through research that is different than other stories that are told about the moon landing. 

13:40 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So it sounds like you really kind of went for the human interest angle and the universality of it as well. 

13:47 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Absolutely, and that's part of what I do as a writer. I write about common stories, about common themes for kids, but try to do it from that human perspective of us all being in this world together and hopefully getting along. 

14:02 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And who was the artist? Who did the illustrations for your book? 

14:06 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Postian is the gentleman who did all the illustrations and fun facts for anyone listening. A lot of times you don't meet the author and illustrator. They're not in the same room together ever and he and I were not, but as we're via Zoom, I met him via Zoom but I wouldn't know him if he walked into the room because his camera wasn't working that day, oh no. So it's kind of funny how it works. But you know people, the illustrators are magical. They take an idea and it's like they can get into your head almost as a writer and hopefully the manuscript gives them enough to go on. But then they take that and they ask questions and there's some back and forth by email through, obviously, the images that I would proof and make sure they're accurate and things like that. But it's phenomenal the interaction and his talent in putting it together. 

15:06 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Especially in nonfiction. I've always loved that notion that you don't meet and I'm wondering, because I imagine it's a surprise for you to some extent when you see the finished project and you go wait a minute. I had never thought about adding that extension to it. Were there any aha or wow moments when you unboxed your book and went? 

15:26 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
hmm, I had seen the images, obviously before it had come in full print, but it was just the idea that I wasn't quite sure how to introduce it, and I had some ideas, because you don't want to sometimes just start a book and not have any human connection, and so the way we connected it was through the kids going through a museum, because anybody today would have been non-existent at the time when this happened. This seems like so long ago. So how do you bring them to that? And just the things he added that were museum-like throughout to keep that threading of these kids are taking a journey to learn about something was phenomenal, and his artistry is beautiful as well, so I appreciate that. 

16:16 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Very cool. Well, I definitely encourage people to go out and get a copy of this book, particularly as we're coming up on the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Question for you, you're sort of connecting literacy and STEM through this particular book. You've been a teacher for 30 years. Do you have ideas for any of our teacher listeners out there about ways to build those connections between STEM and literacy in a fun way? 

16:45 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Yeah, you know, I teach college level students now in business level students now in business, and I still incorporate children's books because they're the quickest and fastest way to get ideas to people of any age. It has, it packs a punch. It's very visual, so your visual learners are connected to it. The illustrations, as we just mentioned, are beautiful and they just bring to life an idea, and so, to me, literacy is that way to connect people with all kinds of ideas out there, which is also why I started my nonprofit. I know how important that is, and I think that teachers really try to spark interest in everything that they do, and picture books really help with that. Like I said, I use in a management class that I teach what do you do with an idea? By Kobe Yamada is his name, and he has a series of those books and I read those to my college students because we talk about entrepreneurship. So what do you do with an idea? 

17:52
And that visual and that idea helps them connect back to. You know those concepts that are what I always call the million dollar words at the college level. You know the big fancy words, but it helps break it down for them in a way that's accessible and relatable, and that's what I love about using books to help teach any concept to children quite honestly, that makes a lot of sense. 

18:18 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
You know, as you're talking about your college students, I use them with my college students as well, but I'm teaching more education-focused classes. But I was just thinking about business and I was like so much of what they're learning is how to fail, how to get up from failure, how to collaborate, and books like Jabari tries and um box of texts and the most magnificent um thing. I'm like all of those would absolutely apply, along with the idea book, um. You know, I'm just realizing there are so many ways you could take that and I love the fact that you're still using picture books on the college level. I think that's cool and they think it's fun. They do and I think that we stop. That's the beauty. It's fun to them and we should be using picture books all the way up the line when we're teaching Because, as you said, there's so much packed into them and they're not just for preschoolers and they're not just for second graders, they're really intended for a more sophisticated audience. 

19:16 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Absolutely, and you know, for people when they talk about writing it's, it was easier for me to write a college textbook that was 350 pages than a book like this. That's, you know, 600 words, sure words, sure, every. Everything is very intentional and that's the beauty of using it um picture books and to to help people understand it's. Every word is intentional and whether it's fiction or non-fiction, it gets to the heart of what the story is in a very succinct way. And that's also the beauty for educators and parents just anyone looking at books is that picture books really do help you get those concepts in a clear, succinct way, that sometimes other books take pages and pages to discuss and I know you teach on the college level. 

20:10 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
but you also have your nonprofit where you help to get books into the hands of kids, and I imagine that's where you get lots and lots of exposure to picture books. Can you tell us a little bit about your nonprofit? 

20:22 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Sure, we partner. We're an affiliate with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and Dolly Parton started a just a foundation, really years ago because her father could not read and so she wanted to get books to all the kids in her town, then her county, then her state of Tennessee, then now it's global and so she has given out over 225 million books to kids. So to in order to have those programs in communities, you have to have nonprofits, affiliates like mine, to raise money for the to give to her foundation, basically to send the books to kids. So kids get one book mailed to their home every month and then they build a library at home. The beauty in that is for the places that do that, almost half of the country honestly has them for their entire state and so they fund half of that and then the non-profits raise the other half. But the beauty in that is that all kids coming then kindergarten has 60 books that they have knowledge of, that they have unified information about. You know, for anyone who reads to children, they know what the very hungry caterpillar is and I use this as an example all the time. So children might go into a classroom and the kindergarten teacher has it all decked out with a very hungry caterpillar or some theme to a book that people believe everybody knows about, but probably 30 to 40% of the class has never read that book. But you have some kids coming in with knowledge that they can pick up and run from there and the other kids are like what is that? You know? I've never heard of that before. And so, by having this program in communities, kids come to school with these 60 books. If they've had it since birth, it ends when they turn five years old. But they have that basis from which teachers can then build and say remember when you saw this in this book? This is a concept now we're going to carry to this next leveling and scaffolding of ideas, and I think that's a beautiful thing and that's what we're really working to try and get. 

22:37
In the county in which I live. There are a lot of affiliates in Iowa. We're working on state funding but that hopefully will come down the pike in the future. But that's really what the goal is is to reach all kids, because there's not an income level. All parents need to read more to their children Sure Parents who are working a lot, parents who just don't have a lot of time, a lot of resources. Everybody needs to read more and that brain development is critical from birth to age three, that 85% of your brain is developed during that time. And that is key because a lot of times people wait until kids get to preschool to say I'll start reading then. 

23:21 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
But they really need it from birth, and the beauty of Dolly's library, too, is they're so thoughtfully curated, and so within the 60 books, you've got books that are windows and mirrors. There's a lot of diversity and multiculturalism within the titles, and you're sort of providing a common language for kids, as you said, for kids and families, and I think that's really inspiring. Well, thank you for doing that, dr Jill. That's so cool, absolutely. 

23:51 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
It's been a pleasure and it's an honor. The most rewarding thing is when you tell a parent about reading and they sit down immediately and start reading with their child. That's beautiful and that's what it's really for, because it will change generations of kids if we can help them earlier on and not wait until they get into third or fourth grade to realize they're not reading on grade level. It really is a building block that can help everybody education systems, parents and future employers. You know all those people along the way, so it's definitely something I hope that people around the country continue to get behind. 

24:28 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, you know, and since we're talking about picture books, I'm wondering were there picture books that impacted you as a kid, that sort of have stayed with you? And also, are there picture books as you've been working with your nonprofit and you've had all of these books sort of come through your domain? Are there newer books that also have impacted you? 

24:51 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
your domain. Are there newer books that also have impacted you? Yeah, the first book that every child that signs up for the department's imagination library through our organization, um, they get the little engine that could, and I think you know. Philosophically, I believe that I align with a lot of what she her messaging is for the world and what she believes about literacy and people, and I love that for sure. That's key to everything that we do is that everyone can do these things, and it's not just the hard work, there's also the supports that go with that. 

25:22
But for myself, even as I was reading with my boys some of our favorites and some of my certainly personal favorites things like the Getting Tree by Shel Silverstein, which, like I said, if I say that I'm about relationships and universality of things, this is certainly part of that. It's the relationships that you build. Miraculous journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo she is such a phenomenal writer and the emotion and the heart that goes into those books, um, I could only hope to ever do as well. She's just beautifully written, kind of things, um, and then the runaway bunny is just fun, but it also shows that parental love that's just unconditional for a child. You know that I'm going to be there no matter what, and my boys would certainly probably say, now that they are 15 and 17, that, yes, my mom's always there, and I would be thrilled if that was something they said. But those things are deeply rooted in what I probably love and speaks to who I am as a writer as well. 

26:29
I have a fiction book about a little girl who Priscilla's Perfect Tea Party is what it's called. But she has the idea that everything in life should go perfectly. So she's planning the tea party with her grandmother and it doesn't go quite perfectly and how she deals with that. And so you know, as we were mentioning the coping skills, the how to pick yourself up, kind of, and keep moving forward my, my entrepreneurship students do like that as well, because they know I wrote it. So sometimes I'll pull that out if we have time and and show them that if it doesn't work the first time, you keep going and it can turn out equally as well. So that's that messaging there. But all of the books I think that I would, you know, respond to and that resonate with me are certainly about people and the heart of us as humans. 

27:18 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and that's a great transition. I was going to ask what other books have you written besides this current one, and what are you working on right now? 

27:29 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
So I just mentioned my book, priscilla's Perfect Tea Party, and I have kind of a series of those not yet published but written. The manuscripts are written. As a writer. I have a lot of stories written the finding an agent, finding an editor, finding you know. Publishing Of course Takes a little bit more time, and so my time is split between, of course, my, an editor, finding you know publishing Of course Takes a little bit more time, and so my time is split between, of course, my full-time job, my nonprofit, my children and I write as I can and do the things I can. But I certainly have a lot of stories about different, like I said, events and experiences. 

28:06
I just wrote a manuscript earlier this year about children when they greet each other in a classroom, called hugs or high fives, about a child that's not comfortable being what I call the happy host in the book and greeting kids because they're uncomfortable with that, and we have a lot of children in schools that aren't comfortable, you know, touching other kids or having people kind of in their space, and that's what that book is about. 

28:33
So that is a book I want to send out and hopefully will be published in the world at some point. Here. I have other stories about people being there for individuals as they go through a loss, and so I kind of have a wide variety of books. Some are things like nonfiction stories about Iowa and our first Supreme Court case in Iowa with a gentleman named Ralph Montgomery, and so I have a lot of stories. I, like I said, as a teacher, I find things that I think are interesting that people maybe don't know a lot about, and try to increase awareness that way and, like I said, the ability for us just to get along as people is important to me. So I think that that kind of probably would sum up my style of writing and some of the other manuscripts that I have. 

29:29 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And Dr Jill, if people want to follow, you want to learn more about Messages on the Moon and the other things you're writing. Where should they go? 

29:38 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
I have a website, an author's website, and it is Jill Freested Tate. It's a hyphen in there as well, and so they can check out my website for sure. But I also am on Twitter at BracedEdTate, and I post there often. But certainly they could reach out to me just BracedEdTate at gmailcom. That's my personal email and I certainly respond to that as well. So I'm happy to talk to people. I do go talk to schools and do school visits, particularly about Messages on the Moon, although I have other things about the ability to write your own story with some older children or adults. So I have lots of ways that I think I'm out there, but I'm always open to hearing how else I could be out there, I guess. 

30:30 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Excellent, I'll make sure I drop all of that in the show notes. So one last question for you what brings you joy? 

30:40 - Dr. Jill Friestad-Tate (Guest)
Boy, that's a great question. Having fun meeting new people, certainly learning new things. When you're young you don't really think much about that, sometimes you just go through schooling and different things. But learning new things, trying new things, just meeting new people and learning about them, their cultures I love to travel, so that brings me a lot of joy, for sure. Them, their cultures I love to travel, so that brings me a lot of joy, for sure, outside of certainly my own family and my children and seeing that that hopefully is a given. But the idea that I can learn new things and hopefully make a positive difference in the world, that certainly would bring me joy. 

31:25 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well,  Dr Friestad-Tate, spending time with you today has brought me a lot of joy. Thank you for being on the Adventures in Learning podcast and I look forward to seeing what comes next for you. Thank you so much for having me Appreciate it.