The Rocko Rocket Story
Rocko's Big Launch is an award-winning picture book written by Yolande Clark-Jackson and illustrated by her husband, Rock Jackson, an internationally exhibiting artist and designer who once upon time, taught art to pre-schoolers. In 1995 when he created a puppet for a group of his students from a split basketball, Yolande gave the puppet a name and a story.
Rocko's Big Launch is about a little boy who wants to be a rocket scientist. Rocko dreams of building a rocket so he can travel to outer space. His first challenge, however, is to figure out how to keep his model rockets from crash landing.
The Story Behind the Story
As a student at Morgan State University, Yolande worked as a research assistant for the late Ernest C. Hammond Jr. At that time, Hammond was a professor of physics and a Principal Investigator for a NASA research project. Hammond had a passion for not only physics, but also astronomy. The character, Rocko Rocket, was inspired in part by imagining what Prof. Hammond must have been like as a child.
Rocko's Big Launch was produced as a result of a successful kickstarter project and later became an award-winning self-published book.
Follow Rocko
Rocko Rocket's Youtube series ThinkSpace Kids launched on Jaunuary 1, 2025.
Rocko's Big Launch, ThinkSpace Coloring Book, The Sun picture book and digital versions of Rocko's Big Launch are now available on our website in English, Spanish, and French.
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