re: Alan Shepard
Daniel,
I received the same book for christmas 1968 (in french) and remember the picture you mention! The book is in pieces perhaps in the attic; I've cut through it, read it countless of times! The scene i's also in the Freedom7 videos and in the movie "The Right Stuff".
So far, I haven't found it yet, but this could help.
(And well, I'm now reading Cunningham's "the All American Boys" and I can't say the astronauts appreciated Shepard pushing his way to become Apollo commander when he only had 15 minutes of flight experience.
Raoul