A recent surge of conversation about children's nonfiction reveals a conflict between two positions that do not at first appear to be opposed: modeling inquiry and presenting authoritative facts. Tanya Lee Stone, the author of the Sibert Award-winning "Almost Astronauts" (2009), has recently alluded to that tension and expressed a preference for nonfiction that is reliable. This essay takes "Almost Astronauts" as a test case, focusing especially on how it portrays its original research and its two key characters: Jerrie Cobb and Jackie Cochran. The essay uses these examples to argue that in pursuing reliability, "Almost Astronauts" suppresses complexity and opportunities to model inquiry, thereby sacrificing both critical engagement and accuracy.